How To Optimize Videos for Maximum Viewership
You’ve dropped a music video and you want as many people to see it as possible, right?
Here’s the inside scoop for independent artists looking to get their music heard and their music videos seen.
An effective way to generate long-term traffic is through referral engines. Specifically after dropping new music, it can increase the number of people your music reaches. YouTube is the world’s second largest search engine with its “recommended videos” category possibly serving as one of the top traffic drivers to your music. The best part about it? Your listeners are active because there is nothing to distract their attention from it.
Optimizing Your Videos with YouTube
It’s important to optimize your video when posting to YouTube. The algorithm will direct listeners to your music by automatically playing it in the recommended videos and playlists. Based on the size of YouTube’s user base alone, an optimized video will attract more traffic than any online ad.
Descriptive titles - Here are some things to keep in mind when creating a title: The first thing that should be included in the title is your name, obviously. This will help your fans to find your music. Next, describing the file such as “official audio” or “lyric video” can help your listeners to know it's the real deal. Finally, come up with a consistent naming title and format so they are all easy to find by your listeners.
Video tags - In the world of SEO, the more tags (or keywords), the better–most times. Tags inform listeners what your video is about. They’re a great way to get your video in front of people who are viewing similar videos. For YouTube, we recommend between 25 and 40 tags on your video for optimal visibility. The cheat code is to use tags that a lot of people search but not a lot of people use to describe videos like yours.
Detailed Descriptions - Your description is your message on YouTube. This can be a way of storytelling for your brand or even promotion for your music. Your ideal description should include: a quick blurb about your video or song, release/promo(social) links, links to your other music, credits, and a call to action.
End Cards - Utilize end cards on your videos to encourage more interaction from your listeners. It’s a YouTube feature that displays at the end of the video where you can promote your other videos or YouTube playlists. You can even use it as a CTA for listeners to subscribe.
High-Quality Thumbnail - Quality is king when it comes to content. It’s a visual representation of your brand. Make sure the thumbnail (the image you see before clicking on your video) is a high quality image that is relevant to the video.
Social Media - Once your video has been uploaded and optimized as much as possible with the steps given here, make sure to share across all your social channels!
Make It Public - Make sure to set your video to public so anyone can view your video wherever they may be directed from and so your video can be shared without any issues.
YouTube Tools
Exposure is everything to an artist. Tools like shorts, live streams, long form videos are important to maximizing your reach. The good thing is YouTube is a prime destination for fans of all kinds.
Here are some tips to get your listeners engaged with your music:
set up a preview of your music so fans can start using it as an audio
Collaborate with other artists to tease your music
Release a full-length video trailer
Share some exclusive behind the scene footage
Diversify release content across YT shorts in the days leading up to the release
Make sure to interact with listeners in your comments
After your release, post shorts using your song as the audio on them
Optimizing Your Videos with VEVO
VEVO, or Video Evolution, is the world’s largest premium music video provider. It’s a global distribution platform founded by three music giants: Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, and EMI. In short, VEVO maintains the largest network of music channels on YouTube, and also distributes music videos to major Connected TV platforms and streaming services, including Apple TV, Hulu + Live TV, Pluto TV, Samsung TV Plus, and Roku. Artists who host their videos on VEVO are also eligible for additional promotion of videos across the VEVO network, both on YouTube and major Connected TV platforms and streaming services, strategic editorial support on VEVO’s social networks, and customized and promoted playlisting.
If that’s not enough of a reason to put your videos on VEVO, how about royalties? Monetizing videos should be a priority for independent artists and the best part is that the payout is higher than YouTube!
How do I get my videos on VEVO?
Artists can only deliver their video content and create an official channel with VEVO through a verified content partner…. lucky for you, our team at FreshNoise Distro meet the requirements! As a VEVO distributor, we are also able to contact VEVO throughout the year to advocate for our artists’ participation in their original content opportunities (VEVO films nearly 1,000 pieces of original content each year from both established and emerging artists).
In addition to delivering videos to VEVO, it’s also important to deliver your video to Apple Music for maximum viewership across ALL platforms.
To land on Apple music, you’ll also need a distributor. Most distributors charge a small fee for video uploads to Apple Music due to strict Apple specs that require specialist quality control and delivery.
