Making money as a musician has always been difficult. Now that the internet is flooded with content and advertising, it can be even more difficult to stand out from the crowd. However, YouTube has proven to be one of the best places for musicians to make money and connect with their fans. YouTube allows you to upload videos that can be monetized through advertising revenue or pre-roll ads before they play automatically whenever someone views your video. If you have enough followers on YouTube, then there are ways for you to make more money by becoming an official partner with YouTube itself or by getting people who visit your channel off site through links in the description box along with asking them if they’d like to pre-order their upcoming album or merchandise directly from your website. The average YouTube channel will not have YouTube music as their primary source of content. However, in the music business in order to earn money your artists YouTube account will have YouTube content that is specifically geared towards your music.
Why do music videos do so well on YouTube?
The first reason is that YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world, with over 1.9 billion users. The second reason is that there are over 1 billion hours of content uploaded every single day. That’s a lot of videos! The third reason has to do with how people use YouTube, which is different from what they do on other platforms like Facebook or Instagram. People spend a lot more time watching videos on YouTube than any other platform. In fact, they watch over 6 billion hours of content every single day, so it makes sense that musicians would want their music on this site as well!
How can I make money on YouTube?
As a musician, you may want to know how to make money on YouTube. The answer is that it’s not easy. If you’ve already created an account and uploaded some YouTube videos, then there are some things you can do to boost your chances of making money. Its not enough having your music only on sportify or apple music.
If you want to get paid through Google AdSense revenue sharing, your channel must have at least 10k lifetime views and 1k subscribers (at least 4k subscribers if the channel is in Spanish). You’ll also need a minimum of 400 hours of watch time within the last 12 months, as well as 40 uploads (20 for Spanish-language channels).
Know your rights and contracts.
The first thing you’ll want to do is learn your rights and contracts. You can’t just upload any music video, song, or anything else for that matter. You have to know what you’re allowed to do before uploading anything on YouTube. A good place to start is by reading the terms of service for YouTube as well as their contracts with musicians and labels (you can find these here). These documents will tell you whether or not they allow their videos on other platforms and how much money they pay out per 1,000 views of your video.
There are also numerous websites devoted solely toward helping artists understand their rights when it comes time for them to monetize their content through ad revenue sharing services like AdSense (which we talked about earlier).
Upload quality content and grow your audience
- Upload quality content and grow your audience
First and foremost, you need to create content that is of high quality. When uploading your first video, it’s important to make sure that you’re putting out something that people will want to watch. You should be proud of the work you’ve done and share it with the world!
- Upload frequently
The second step is posting frequently—but not too frequently so as not to annoy your subscribers or viewers! It’s also important that each video provides value for subscribers by providing them with information they can use in their own music-making journey, while being unique enough from other channels on YouTube so as not to confuse potential customers about what type of content they’ll get when they visit one channel over another one.”
Understand how the YouTube partner agreement works
The first thing you want to do is sign up for the YouTube partner program. This will enable you to actually make money on your videos, but it’s not enough in itself.
If you’re a musician and want to make money off your content, there are two things that need to happen: (1) You have to put out high-quality content (2) People need to see that content!
As long as those two things exist, then it doesn’t matter if your niche is popular or obscure—you can still make money on YouTube!
You can read more about the requirements of being a YouTube partner here: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/1734276?hl=en&ref_topic=2930454
Create a strong profile and channel to showcase your music.
- Create a strong profile and channel to showcase your music.
- Use a consistent profile picture that matches your brand, channel art, and banner. If you have an album cover, use it! The same goes for the banner—if your logo is memorable and eye-catching, turn that into a banner too (with some text laid over it) so people can find you easily on YouTube. Make sure you keep them updated with whatever changes are happening in your career so they always know what they’re getting when they subscribe!
To showcase and grow your music even more, you can use a music submission platform like One Submit, so your music can get the necessary exposure and promotion it deserves. By using the One Submit platform, you can submit and send your music to YouTube channel curators and get your music reviewed and added to these channels.
Connect with the right audience.
To make money on YouTube as a musician, you first need to figure out your audience. What do they like? How do they like to be communicated with? What are their pain points? How can you help them?
In order to know this, it’s important to understand what your strengths and weaknesses are, where your target market is coming from and how you can reach them most effectively.
If you want to make more money from fulfilling music pre orders, you need to create awareness about the release date in advance.
If you want to make more money from fulfilling music pre orders, you need to create awareness about the release date in advance.
The most effective way to do this is by creating a landing page that includes:
- A countdown timer (30 days or less before release)
- A teaser video
- Links to where people can buy and stream your music
Promoting your music on YouTube music channels
Some of YouTube’s music channels are dedicated to promoting indie artists using cool video art and graphics. Getting on one of these channels can generate you many views and can open your music to a new audience.
One of the platforms that helps artist get their music on such channels is One Submit
It’s an easy to use platform that helps you get also on Spotify playlists, TikTok channels, Blogs, Radio Stations, Record Labels and YouTube music channels.
Conclusion
You should also make sure that you’re aware of the laws surrounding copyright and royalties on YouTube. You don’t want to accidentally infringe someone’s rights, or worse yet – have them sue you! So get familiar with the basics before uploading anything to your channel. Get your songs on youtube, apple music and spotify.