In this article I’m going to give you some tips on how to promote your rap music on YouTube. I’m going to deal mostly with the more technical aspects. This article is mostly aimed at rappers trying to promote their music on YouTube, but these principles can be applied to any type of music, and even non-music content.
YouTube is currently my main source of traffic, I have over 1300 subscribers on my channel, and over 376000 views (and still rising).
It’s currently the second largest search engine, the biggest video sharing site, and I consider it one of the best means of promotion for music.
Understand what you need to do on YouTube
This one is not technical, it’s mostly mindset/mentality, but a very important aspect nonetheless.
If you want to promote your rap music on YouTube, you need to understand what YouTube wants you to do. YouTube is a business, so it’s goal is to generate revenue. YouTube does this by showing ads on the videos on the platform. The more time the users spend staying on their platform, the more ads they can show. It would make sense for YouTube to favor videos and channels that keep people on their site. YouTube prioritizes videos that generate a longer viewing session. That’s why watch time (how much time viewers spend watching your videos) is more important than views.
Basically, your goal as a “content creator” on YouTube is to keep people as long as possible on their website, preferably listening to your music/watching videos on your channel. If you manage to keep people on their website, YouTube’s algorithms will start promoting your channel.
Make your music searchable
Face it, if you don’t have any buzz going on, nobody is going to search your name, so nobody will hear your music.
However, you have better chances if you make your music searchable.
Here’s what I mean:
If you put your song/video title in this format: Artist Name – Song
You are not giving the search engine enough information. So if nobody searches for your Artist Name/Song, you are not going to get any views on this video.
A better title would be like this: Artist Name – Song (Rap Music 2016).
Why is this better? – because it contains more information for the search engine. Nobody is searching for your Artist Name/Song, but people are searching for “rap music 2016”, so now that your song title contains that phrase, your song has a chance to show up when people search for “rap music 2016”.
However, ranking for search terms like “rap music 2016” might be very hard for a new channel, so you might want to use a phrase that’s more specific.
For example, if you make trap music, you might want to write something like “trap rap music new song 2016”. Just get as specific as possible with it.
Also, don’t forget about tags. Just add as many things people might be searching for. Make sure you get as close as possible to the 500 characters limit for tags. If you need ideas for tags/search phrases, you can use keywordtool.io. Just input a search phrase, and it will give you new suggestions based on what you entered.
Improving watch time
Now even if people can easily find your music, it’s useless if they don’t stick around, so the first tip to improve watch time would be to MAKE GOOD MUSIC.
Now that we got that out of the way, let’s get to the more technical stuff.
Playlists
Make playlists with your songs. For example, if you uploaded an entire mixtape on your YouTube, put all songs in a playlist.
Long form videos
This might be really powerful for albums/mixtape. Instead of uploading each song as a separate video, put your entire album/mixtape songs in one single video and add timecodes for each song in the description. There is evidence to suggest that youtube favors longer videos over shorter videos. Actually it might be better to have both separate videos for every song and all songs in one video.
Here’s what I’m talking about – click here.
Create a video containing more of your songs (preferably an entire album/mixtape or a best of compilation).
Be careful though, you don’t want to do this too often, or you might get penalized for spamming/posting repetitive content.
Share your videos in playlist mode
Whenever you share a link to one of your songs on YouTube, use the playlist link mode (when you have a playlist on the right side). The link that you share should looks like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RH9EIrsxOds&list=UUt7LYjZdOpKED6IWyBMyW6g
Just go to one of your playlists (or your “Uploads” playlists), go to the song you want to share and, if the playlist shows up on the right side, copy the link. Sharing your songs in playlist mode is beneficial because it increases the chances of people watching more of your videos.
Quality
Don’t upload your music/videos in 240p quality. Even if you use a still image for your music, you should upload it at least at 720p quality (the image that you use should have a resolution of at least 1280X720). Also, get a professional designer to design a logo and channel art for you (or design it yourself).
Consistency
This is probably the most important tip. Posting your rap music on YouTube regularly. YouTube recommends that you upload a new video every week. Now that might be too much for some, but posting regularly will bring you success on the YouTube platform. I would recommend at least one new song every month.
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