Getting your music heard on YouTube can be hard, if you don’t know what to do. Thousands of new songs are uploaded on YouTube every day, which is why it can be very difficult to stand out.
However, there are a lot of things you can do about it. Here are my top 5 ways to optimize your YouTube musician channel and get a ahead of other artists.
#1 Visual appearance of your YouTube channel
Your YouTube channel’s banner is the first thing a new visitor will see when he/she enters to your channel. That’s why it must look professional and visually interesting.
You should carefully decided what kind of visuals you are going use on your banner. Think what kind of colors and styles fits to your music and make the banner style based on that. It is a good idea to use the same style on every visual you put on your channel.
You can use these websites for search free background pictures:
Once you have decided the overall theme and colors, you can start to add some actual content and information to the banner. It’s often a good idea to put your artist name or your channel’s name to the banner or your logo. Now visitors can immediately see who you are, which helps to brand your channel.
You can also add the icons of other social media sites you are using on the banner. This way people will know where they can follow you.
Banner can be also used to tell something about yourself with a word a two. This can be your slogan or something about your music or your personality.
Make sure every word you put on the banner is easily readable! No weird or fancy fonts!
The dimensions of the banner picture is as important as the actual content on the banner. If the banner is too small or too big, it won’t show properly on every device (phone, tablet, tv, pc). The preferred banner size on YouTube is 2560 x 1440 pixels. Keep in mind that most people in these days are using YouTube on their mobile phones. That’s why the banner must look great especially on phones.
If you have already released music or you are about to, banner is a great place to hype your music. You can use it to promote your latest or upcoming releases. Your channel’s visitors will immediately see it and check out the track. You can drive your visitors to other platforms as well, such as Spotify.
BONUS TIP: If you are regularly releasing music or uploading YouTube videos, you can include your release/upload schedule on the banner. This way people know when to expect your next track or video and will come back to your channel more often.
#2 Channel keywords
Your YouTube channel’s keywords can be set on your channel’s settings. Keywords are words that describes your channel and videos you’ve uploaded. YouTube uses these words to target your channel to people who are interested in your style of music.
It is very important to set keywords correctly, so YouTube is able to recommend your channel to the right people. You should add at least 20 keywords.
You may combine multiple words together and use single words when adding keywords. The keywords should relate to the content your are uploading. For example, if you are making house music, your key words could be something like: edm, electronic music, house music, progressive house, etc.
If you find it hard to come up with good keywords, you can use YouTube’s search function to find out, what type of music other people are currently searching. Just write music genres and words related to your music and see what words YouTube suggests.
Keep in mind that these words are usually the most used by other channels as well. Because many channels are using them, it can be hard to rank your own channel, if you only use those words. I recommend to come up with unique and use less used keywords as a smaller channel.
BONUS TIP: You can use a chrome extension tool called TubeBuddy to search and compare different keywords and how they perform.
3# Profile picture
Profile picture has a similar visual impact than your channel’s banner. Your profile picture can be seen under the banner and next to your channel’s name when viewing your videos.
People will also see your profile picture when ever you leave comments.
Profile picture can be your logo or your artist name. You can also use a portrait of yourself as the profile picture. The most important thing when it comes to choosing a profile picture is to make sure that it looks nice and fits to the style of your channel.
Profile picture is one of the first things people will see, when they visit your channel. You may want to use the same profile picture on your other social media channels as well. This helps you to enhance your artist brand and people will remember you more easily.
Like with the banner, the dimensions of the profile picture must be right, so it is displayed correctly. The recommended dimensions are 800 x 800 pixels.
4# About page
It is important to fill out your YouTube channel’s about page. Use it to tell something personal about yourself and your music.
New visitors will likely check your about page, if they want to contact you. They may also want to see, if you are present on other social media sites. It’s important to include your most important social media sites on your about page, so that people can easily follow you where they want.
The links you add on your about page will also be visible on your channel’s main page. They will appear on the right side of your banner. Make sure to keep this area of the banner clear, so people can easily see and click the links.
You may also want to include the copyright information of your tracks on the about page. Many people are looking for background music for their videos and streams for example, which is why they want to know whether your tracks can be freely used or not.
Lastly, add your preferred contact method to the about page. This can be your email for example. Make it as easy as possible for people to get in touch with you. This builds trust towards your listeners.
5# Organize your main page
YouTube allows you to organize your main channel page the way you want. If you have created many playlists, you can choose in which order the playlists are displayed on your main channel page. You may also choose an individual video to feature on the top of the main page.
To rearrange your playlist, simply click up or down arrow on the right side of the playlist. You can also remove or add new playlists to the main page.
YouTube will automatically create your newest uploads playlist and your most popular videos playlist for you to use. I recommend to put the newest uploads playlist on the top of the main page, because people will often want to check out your latest tracks. It can be very frustrating for a listeners if he/she can’t find your newest videos.
Ultimately it’s up to you which content you are going to show on the main channel page. As long as you have a goal in your mind and not just randomly arranging your playlist, you are good to go!
Final words
There was my top 5 ways to optimize your YouTube musician channel. Keep in mind that implementing these methods will not automatically give you thousands of new listeners.. You will need to constantly upload new music and be active on your community.
However, optimizing your YouTube channel will give you an edge!