21 tips to make the most of a music video release

Written by Kyle Kraft of Krafty Entertainment

Krafty Entertainment is a music business development coaching company dedicated to providing guidance to musicians (and their teams) on how best to nurture supporters and profit from doing so. Krafty Entertainment’s founder Kyle Kraft has over 20 years experience in assisting both developing and established artists in substantially growing their net income from their music. Interested in working with us? Let’s talk!

HAVE A PLAN TO MAXIMIZE AWARENESS AND BENEFIT BEFORE YOU RELEASE YOUR VIDEO

Don't just release a music video arbitrarily, have a plan to make the most of the release. Not only should you be trying to get as many potential fans as possible to watch your video - which requires planning in advance of the release - but you should be aiming to have people take action immediately after watching. Even if you get a lot of potential fans to watch your video, if them watching is the end of the interaction that is a lost opportunity to substantially increase the likelihood of them becoming a long term supporter of your music. If you set everything up well, having people watch your video has the potential to allow you to build direct connections with people that could become supporters of your career (and contribute to it in a substantial way financially) for years to come. Here’s some suggestions on how to make that happen, and if you ensure you have all of these in place before you launch your video it will have a much bigger impact on your career than if you don’t:

BEFORE YOU SHOOT THE VIDEO - MAKE SURE YOU ARE PLANNING FOR YOUR VIDEO TO BE AS EFFECTIVE OF AN OUTREACH TOOL AS IT CAN BE

At the time I’m writing this the majority of music videos created are watched mostly on YouTube and Facebook, so it is important to recognize when you are planning your video that you need to be doing everything in your power to ensure the video is set up to be as effective as possible in getting people to watch and listen to the whole video on those platforms. If you are a developing artist you should be planning on doing YouTube pre-roll ads and Facebook ads with your video to fans of stylistically similar artists (or better still to lookalike audiences once you’ve built up enough viewer engagement), and since that is the case you should recognize that your music video is really a commercial for your music that should be set up to convert as many potential fans as is possible.

ENSURING YOUR VIDEO IS SET UP TO MAXIMIZE EFFECTIVENESS AS AN AD

YouTube is currently the number one search engine in the world for music and the platform on which music is consumed more than anywhere else, so shouldn’t be ignored as a promotional outlet to create awareness for a music video. YouTube pre-roll ads force viewers of other videos (which you should target carefully as outlined in the previous paragraph) to watch the first 5 seconds of your video, after which they have the ability to click away to the watch video that they were originally trying to. IF the first 5 seconds of your video are compelling enough, they can choose to not click away right away and will potentially even watch your whole video if they stay interested in it. For this reason the first 5 seconds of the video (and the version of your song you use) MUST be as strong as is possible. You should be using a "video edit" of your song for the video that starts with the most captivating part of the song (likely the chorus) first – hitting right away with no intro - and also insure the video is as visually compelling as is possible right from the start and again with no intro before the music starts. That will maximize the chances of viewers watching past the 5 seconds that they are forced to.

Facebook is a massive tool to expose music videos and get great engagement and sharing as a result. With Facebook’s sharing algorithm penalizing posts containing links (including to videos on YouTube) you are going to get your video seen by a lot more people on Facebook if you also upload it directly onto Facebook. Since many people scroll quickly through their Facebook newsfeeds its again very important that your video is as visually compelling as possible right from the very start so that when videos uploaded directly to Facebook play in their newsfeed they stop scrolling to watch. Don’t forget that on Facebook that videos often play with no sound until they are clicked on, so you have your work cut out for you with the visuals to even get viewers to hear your music. Having strong titles, your name, and even potentially lyrics in writing on the video itself may be compelling to potential fans to get them to click the video to hear your music.

ENCOURAGING VIEWERS TO SUBSCRIBE AT THE END OF THE VIDEO

A video view on its own doesn't do you nearly as much good as getting a subscription from the viewer which allows you communicate further with them and develop the relationship to the point the viewer becomes a fan who supports you in a more tangible way. As such it is wise to actually remind people to subscribe on the end of the video itself. The most effective reminder is probably a video of you on screen taking to the viewer, but if that doesn't work for your identity it could be as simple as a graphic on the end of the video for a few seconds reminding people to subscribe or follow (ideally with a voiceover encouraging them to do so as well). Be conscious of the fact that you should have your video posted both on YouTube and Facebook, so you should either have different versions of your video that say "subscribe" or "follow my page" depending on the platform it will be hosted on or at the very least have the reminder at the end say both.

CREDIT FUNDING ORGANIZATIONS IF YOU’RE A CANADIAN ARTIST GETTING GRANTS

If you’re a Canadian artist who has been approved for a grant or has an application pending to fund the video you are working on, be sure to credit them appropriately (with the required logos and acknowledgements) at the end of your video to meet the conditions of funding so that you don't have to take down and reissue your video with those logos and acknowledgements and lose the view numbers, comments, likes, and other engagement elements by doing so. This is essential to staying in good standing with the funding organization, which you definitely want to do in order to be able to get funding from them in the future.

TIME YOUR VIDEO RELEASE WITH OTHER NEWS TO MAXIMIZE THE CHANCES OF IT BEING REPOSTED BY OTHERS

Coincide your video release with announcements of as much news on developments in your career as is possible in order to maximize the chances of the video getting reposted by other people. Details on a forthcoming album release date and/or cover art and track listing debuts, a link to a crowdfunding campaign or at least where physical copies of the project and/ or merch can be pre-ordered, a tour announcement, award nomination announcement, and other substantial career developments are all types of news that increase the likelihood of your video being reposted. 

NUMBERS MATTER, SO ENSURE YOU ARE RELEASING WHEN YOU ARE READY TO PROMOTE

Many people pre-judge music videos by the number of views and other engagement metrics (likes, number of comments, etc), so in order to maximize the likelihood that people even watch your video (never mind share the video, like it, comment on it, or subscribe to your channel) you need to ensure that those numbers are as high as possible right away. Ensure all promotion and advertising is coinciding right with the release of the video, and if you’re not ready to fire on all cylinders then you should delay the video release until you are. This is essential both for potential fans as well as media you are confident will share your video.

PREMIERING WITH A PARTNER

If possible, try to find an online premier partner who will give your video as much exposure to the right potential audience (who is interested in stylistically similar music or themes and at least some of which is based in the same geographical regions you’re trying to focus on building in) as possible in exchange for allowing them to debut the video before anyone else. This is almost certainly going to be a YouTube channel, Facebook page, website, or blog that you or someone on your team already has an existing relationship with, so make sure you are building with potential partners in advance of when you're trying to find a premiere partner.

BUILD UP ANTICIPATION IF YOU HAVE AN ESTABLISHED FAN BASE

If you have an established fan base you should ensure you are leading up to your video premiere with advance emails and social media posts, photos, sneak peeks, behind the scenes videos, trailers, etc in the weeks and days leading up to your video premiere in order to maximize the amount of your existing supporters who check out the video right when you make it public. Check your YouTube and Facebook page analytics to determine the best days and times to make these posts and to debut the video (unless you have a premiere partner that is going to get you more views by posting it at a time they think is best).

ASK FOR REPOSTS

You and/ or someone else on your team should be building relationships with YouTube channels, Facebook pages, websites, and blogs who feature stylistically similar music yours in advance of when you want to ask them to share your content. Once you have started a dialogue with them it makes sense to make them aware of the biggest reasons they should consider sharing your video, and politely asked them to consider posting it because it could be of interest to their audience. The same is true for any other stylistically or thematically similar artists, companies, organizations, etc that you may be affiliated with (as well as anyone involved in the creation of the song and/ or video), as you can ask them to share your video on their social media and perhaps even their email mailing lists as well.

FOLLOW SEO BEST PRACTICES ON YOUTUBE

It should go without saying that you need to ensure that your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) game is tight with the title, tags, and description of your video on YouTube all being as optimized as is possible. CD Baby's DIY Musician blog (linked below) has a good article on that.

ENGAGE FANS TO SHARE VIA CONTESTS IF YOU HAVE AN ESTABLISHED FAN BASE

Ask your fans and other supporters to share the video via their social media. Go a step further and actually create contests where people win prizes or exclusive access to something (e.g. full VIP access to your next show, getting to watch your next studio session, etc) in exchange for sharing the video and making you aware of the fact that they did so. If you have a large enough fan base consider organizing contests for fans to make their own videos of the song inspired by your video, which will further engagement with the song and video.

INCLUDE YOUR VIDEO IN A YOUTUBE PLAYLIST SO VIEWERS ARE MORE LIKELY TO SEE MORE

If you create a YouTube playlist of your videos and place your new video at the start of it, viewers that don’t click away and don’t have YouTube’s autoplay feature turned off will see or at least hear another video of yours after the first video is finished playing. If your video isn’t in a playlist and the viewer doesn’t have their autoplay turned off YouTube will automatically play someone else’s video next, which is a missed opportunity for you to get more your music heard and otherwise strengthen a connection with a potential supporter.

INVEST IN WELL-TARGETED YOUTUBE PRE-ROLL ADS

Investing at least a couple hundred dollars in some well-targeted YouTube pre-roll advertising for your video before views of videos of stylistically similar artists by people in your own region would be a wise idea to expand your fan base. I don't mean paying some sketchy service for fake automated views, YouTube will most likely detect that and remove your video if you do so. In general, well-targeted YouTube pre-roll advertising of your music videos is a great way to create some awareness with new people that aren't already fans but have good potential to become supporters because they are interested in watching videos of artists who have a similar sound to the song your video is for.

INVEST IN WELL-TARGETED FACEBOOK ADS

Investing a couple hundred dollars in some well-targeted Facebook ads of your video (uploaded directly to Facebook, not just of a link to the video on YouTube as Facebook won’t share that with as many people even if you’re paying them for a boost) to people who like stylistically similar artists would also be a wise idea to help you build your fan base. In general, well-targeted Facebook ads of your music videos are a great way to create some awareness with new people that aren't already fans but have good potential to become supporters because they like artists who have a similar sound to the song your video is for.

INCREASE THE LIKELIHOOD OF A LASTING RELATIONSHIP WITH VIEWERS

Aside from all of those exposure-generating suggestions, here are some important suggestions regarding making sure you are doing everything you can to capitalize on that exposure and maximize the chances of developing a lasting relationship with the people that like your video: 

You need to understand that MOST of the people viewing your video aren’t going to be ready to make a purchase yet even if they like your music, so I strongly discourage you from focusing your calls to action in the video or its YouTube description or annotations on trying to make a sale on the spot. It is going to take some time and effort to convert most viewers into customers, so you are going to get much better results by instead focusing your efforts on getting them to subscribe to your channel or page on the platform they are watching the video on to give you the opportunity to continue communicating directly with them. If you are looking to have a secondary call to action, it should be to get them sign up for your email mailing list or SMS text notification list.

GET SUBSCRIPTIONS AND COLLECT EMAIL ADDRESSES VIA LINKS ON YOUTUBE

You should be trying to get as many subscribers and email list sign ups as is possible out of the people who watch your video on YouTube. The best way to do this is by making the very first line of the video description (which is the only line that can be seen without people clicking to see more) say something along the lines of "SUBSCRIBE and sign up for email updates at http://www.website.com" (replacing "website" with your website address where they can go to download the free track right on that page). It's important to make sure that you include the full web address including the http:// so that the link is clickable, otherwise you will get way less sign ups. If you don't have an email sign up form set up on your website yet be sure to get that added ASAP as an artist's email mailing list is currently one of the best means of generating income in the long term if used correctly.

USE YOUTUBE CARDS TO ENCOURAGE PEOPLE TO SUBSCRIBE AND COLLECT EMAIL ADDRESSES AS WELL

I also encourage you to create “cards” (formerly known as annotations, or boxes of text or an image that appears on top of the video on computers and tablets) in YouTube with the exact same text as the first line of the description mentioned above encouraging people to subscribe, as many people don't look at the description of YouTube videos. I encourage you to start displaying the card after the 5 second mark of the video, that way you are focusing the first 5 seconds of the video on getting viewers to keep watching and not alienating any potential fans with the call to action on the card. Definitely make sure you have that card displayed before the 30 second mark of your video, as YouTube charges you for pre-roll ads per view but doesn’t charge you if someone clicks the video before the 30 second mark. That means if someone clicks away (to sign up for the email updates) before the 30 second mark you don’t pay for that view!

KEEP THE FOCUS ON MAXIMIZING LONG TERM RELATIONSHIPS

Getting subscriptions and email addresses to be able to communicate with your supporters in the future is far more important (and profitable in the long term) than selling music or merch on the spot, so I recommend keeping 100% of the call to action associated with you music videos focused on establishing the ability to continue communication with as many viewers as is possible.

COMMUNICATE WITH PEOPLE WHO ENGAGE WITH YOUR VIDEO

Until you are too busy to do so you should be replying to comments thanking people for their input and reminding them to subscribe to your channel or page that they watched your video on, and also sending private messages to people who like your video doing the same. Everyone one of those people commenting or liking your video could be someone who becomes a supporter of your music to the point that they pay you hundreds or even thousands of dollars for your music, merchandise, show tickets, and so on or that helps you get thousands more fans over the course of your relationship with them. As such every one of those people that have commented or liked should be treated with the utmost respect and appreciation, as in time those people have the potential to become an important part of your livelihood.

ADDITIONAL RECOMMENDED READING:

Video ads to get your videos out to the right people

https://creatoracademy.youtube.com/page/lesson/discovery?hl=en

http://diymusician.cdbaby.com/musician-guides/the-diy-musicians-complete-guide-to-youtube/
http://blog.sonicbids.com/25-ways-to-optimize-your-youtube-channel

This information was compiled by Kyle Kraft of Krafty Entertainment. Whether you are an artist who is in the early stages of building your career and have next to no money to invest into it looking for the best paths to generating income, are an artist that has established a following and are interested in getting assistance with securing tens of thousands of dollars in funding to further your career, or are an artist or collective with an extensive fan base that would like assistance with increasing the efficiency of your business development, we can help you.

Want to read more articles written by Kyle? You can do so here.