7 Ways to Get More Views on Your Music Video
Somebody asked me recently “are music videos still a thing?” The answer is YES. They’re a great tool to help build your brand awareness, a solid piece of content that can be re-purposed multiple times, and on top of all that, YouTube is still one of the top places people go to when they listen to music. It’s a way of visually telling the story of your song or adding new layers and context to it and can really help connect fans to your music/story.
So here’s seven quick and dirty tips to help you get more views on your music video!
1.) Have a storyline, try to stay away from boring, live shots
A lot of articles on this subject jump straight into the promotion aspect, but something you HAVE to think about first, is your content great? I don’t mean did you spend a shit ton of money on the video, but is it interesting? Does it tell a story? Or is it just a one camera shot of you playing the song in a room? Sometimes the “live” videos work, but generally you need more of a hook to engage the viewer. From a PR standpoint, I’ve had many writers pass on videos from clients because they found them to be too dull. It doesn’t have to be expensive, but should be unique or at least interesting. Need some inspiration (and a laugh)? Check out this video from a recent client of mine that generated the most views and press the band has ever gotten. Speaking of press…
2.) Press
It’s definitely worth noting that getting press doesn’t always directly result in more views. If a really big press outlet shares your video, that alone could garner quite a bit of views, but what press is really about is building hype and that can cause a snowball effect. If someone follows a few different music blogs and the blogs are all sharing your video, that person is bound to check it out. If they dig it and share it on their feed, then all their friends will see it and then you’ve got a whole new group of potential fans.
3.) YouTube Channels, FB Pages, IG Influencers
Okay, so you might be thinking, how does having another channel or page upload my video help me get views on my original video? Well, if someone discovers you on that channel/page and like it, they are likely to seek you out and listen to more of your music. Another option to utilize this is to ask the influencer to upload a short teaser of your video and then direct their followers to the original full-length music video on your channel.
4.) YouTube ads
YouTube ads are one of our biggest and baddest tools to helping our clients get views on their videos. One advantage Youtube ads have over other social media ads is that you can run your video as an ad on other music videos or channels that relate to your genre of music. Do you sound like Fall Out Boy? Cool, you can possibly have your video shown to Fall Out Boy fans right before they are about to watch “Insert Song Title That has an Unnecessarily Long Name and it Probably Features Wyclef Jean For Some Reason…Part 2”
5.) Choose a great thumbnail image
You can actually create a thumbnail that doesn’t appear in the video. A really compelling graphic with maybe some text on it can encourage randos to click on it. Referring back to my example from earlier, here’s a thumbnail my client used. It you like heavy music and have any sort of humor, you would likely click on that.
6.) Use tags and keywords
Using the right tags and keywords will help you get organic results on YouTube when people search for content related to yours. I know this sounds a little techy (trust me, I’m no mafuckin Bill Gates either), but luckily there’s a number of online SEO tools you can use that will help dumb it down for you a bit. Really take advantage of that video description as well, tell a little story about the video and use it as another opportunity to engage with your audience. Here’s an awesome video caption from one of my clients that I just love.
7.) Spotify playlists/Canvas
“Spotify? This is supposed to be about music videos dude, are you drunk?” I mean, maybe, but that’s not the point. Obviously Spotify is one of biggest discovery platforms for new artists and if someone finds your song on a playlist and becomes a fan, they are very likely to search for the video on YouTube so they can see what you look like. This is obviously a longer game to get views on a video, but I definitely think it’s worth mentioning. Another really cool tool that helps is to create a Spotify Canvas. It’s a short looping visual that appears on the “Now Playing” screen while your track is playing. As Spotify puts it, it’s album art for the streaming age. Choose a really interesting and engaging part of your music video to loop and that will likely entice people to check out the full thing!
There’s a ton of other things you (and we) can do to help increase views on your music video, so try them all and see what sticks! Really the key takeway here is make a great song, make a great video and effectively promote it. I won’t end this with a sales pitch like some articles do by saying something like “if you need additional help getting eyes on your music video, reach out to us,” because you’re a smart person and you can figure out how to click that “contact” button yourself. You know. The one near the top of the page… 😉
Written by co-owner/head publicist/Spotify curator/beer drinker Jesea Lee