I was considering which marketing strategies brought the greatest attention to our music. YouTube Music Promotion Channels was the obvious answer. YouTube promoters, promo channels, music promo channels, broadcasters, YouTube bloggers, and a number of other terms have been used to describe them.
Some may be familiar with this topic, but many will not. However, one thing is certain: they are the new tastemakers in electronic music.
With radio, record stores, and even digital outlets like iTunes and Beatport losing their significance, streaming is becoming the most popular way to listen to music. It’s all about YouTube video promotion service, Soundcloud, and Spotify these days.
Over the course of 2014, YouTube, Soundcloud, Spotify, Vevo, Vimeo, and Rdio received 434 BILLION views. This represents a massive 95 percent increase over 2013 and a 363 percent increase from 2012. Streaming is unquestionably the next big thing.
YouTube is by far the most popular of these platforms. Everyone, not just the younger age, uses it, and it probably has the most music of any of the streaming services. According to the most recent figures, music videos accounted for over 30% of YouTube views.
What are music marketing channels on YouTube?
People started creating YouTube channels to upload music in 2008, and it became popular. Often, youths between the ages of 15 and 20 create films with songs they like and cool artwork so that their friends and others can listen to the music.
The music was chosen to show support for the artist or because the tracks were not yet available on YouTube. As a result of this tendency coinciding with the rise of electronic music, the majority of promo channels are now promoting Electronic Dance Music (EDM).
As YouTube expanded in popularity, so did the number of promoters, and an eco-system arose in which many EDM producers competed to be included on the most popular YouTube music promotion channels in their genre. It became crucial to be on those channels, and starting promo channels became a ‘thing.’
It’s a basic concept that grew into something massive.
Many channels became more professional as YouTube evolved and improved their monetization mechanism. YouTube’s advertising system allows them to insert advertisements on their videos, with a pay-out based on the amount and length of views.
Channels get $1 for roughly 1250-2000 plays if they have an average arrangement with a YouTube network or YouTube itself. Of course, monetization is only possible with the approval of the rightsholders, which the promo channels must obtain from both the music and artwork owners. This must sometimes be provided directly by the artist, and other times through the labels.
As a result, the eco-system has evolved even further, with all of the up-and-coming electronic producers now looking to be uploaded by the main channels, and the channels selecting music that will appeal to their target audience. The promotional channels profit from commercialization and keep the money, whereas the artist is compensated for his or her exposure. they’re given For a long time, this approach has worked successfully for both sides.
A number of promotional platforms have amassed audiences in the hundreds of thousands. Many are in the 50.000—200.000 range, but a select handful – usually the first to jump on board and professionalise the movement – have amassed massive followings.
Majestic Casual, a house/chill promoter, now has over 2.2 million subscribers and averages 32 million monthly plays.
A short look at their SocialBlade profile reveals that their expected annual earnings range from $75k to 1.2 million USD – the latter being more plausible, as they have the clout to negotiate a monetization arrangement that pays them well for each view and revenue sharing.
The top 50-100 YouTube music promotion channels each have large enough viewership to make significant waves in the scenes of the music types they promote. It’s become a method to reach a wider audience, and even the major labels are catching on. Many of the biggest marketing channels have exclusive track deals with the major labels.
Promo channels have the ability to determine what’s popular and what’s not.
How can you receive a promotion?
This is an excellent question to ask, and the answer is essentially the same as it is when trying to sign with a record company.
First and foremost, you must have excellent music, strong (visual) branding, and properly configured web profiles.
Following that, it’s all about cultivating relationships and adding value. Trying to figure out how to stand out from the throng.
The golden guideline is to never spam, and to only pitch products to those you know will appreciate them. Our pitching guide might help you learn more about pitching.
The most popular promotional channels, particularly the ones I’ll describe below, all receive a large number of contributions. Finding out who the channel owners are, establishing connections with them, and submitting content via tailored emails is the best approach to contribute content to them.
If you can’t seem to contact them, you’re already ahead of the game if your product is great and you’re sending them a short, to-the-point email to the correct address, with their first name included.
The fundamentals of a good submission are as follows:
- Use simple email subject lines. “Artist name – Track name (Possible version)” is the format we discovered to use, so “Ark Patrol – Voyager” or “Eastside – Ellie (Ark Patrol Remix)”.
- Send only completed materials. There are no tracks that are still in the works. Make sure everything is mixed and mastered appropriately.
- Only provide material to which you have complete ownership. There will be no unauthorised remixes, bootlegs, or tracks with ambiguous samples.
- Pre-release music is accepted. Promoters enjoy acquiring songs before they are released, and the greatest of them plan their uploads weeks in advance.
- Offer them first looks or exclusives. Exclusives are those who have exclusive access to the upload. Typically, this is done under a multi-day embargo, such as a three-day exclusive beginning on the release day. Premieres are when they are given a one-day head start on the uploading process before any other blogs.
- A stream should always be included. Promoters hate having to download a music before listening to it. This is where private Soundcloud sharing links come in handy.
- Always include a link to a download. Either activate ‘download’ on your Soundcloud upload and mention it in your email, or include a download link from a reputable hosting service like Dropbox or Google Drive. TIP: Avoid using Zippyshare or Mediafire.
- We like to include the release description (press text), private download links for the promoter, public download / buy links (which will be active on release day), and the artist and Heroic’s social media links in the description of the private Soundcloud upload.
We take the strategy of hand-picking major tastemakers in each genre for each release we put out on our label, and then sending the release to them via personalised emails. We’ve built relationships with these key promoters, so emails that are concise and to-the-point will suffice.
When sending mailers, the key to getting strong results is to first create personal ties with the people you’re sending to. That way, the newsletter won’t come from just anyone, and you’ll see an increase in open and response rates as consumers recognise the sender.
If the promoter is interested in uploading your music, be ready to sign a licencing agreement giving them permission to upload and economically exploit (monetize) the release. You can only legally provide this licence if you own the music’s rights.
The actual rights-holders can strike a channel if it uploads uncleared material without permission. After three strikes, a YouTube channel’s whole content might be removed permanently.
A Collection Of The Best
This works by having a few marketing channels dominate a particular sound or style.
The bass music scene is dominated by a few promoters. A few more deep house tracks. And so on.
I’ve put up a list of the most influential tastemakers in today’s electronic music genres.
This list isn’t thorough — there are a lot more promo channels – but it’s a good starting point for figuring out which players to approach in each area. When it comes to pitching them, don’t regard my genre definitions as exhaustive of all the music they promote. If the music is excellent enough or the goodwill is strong enough, many of them will venture beyond their respective genres.
For all channels, the subscriber count and submission addresses are added (only if they made it public, of course). You should assume that the bigger the channel, the more sought after it is, thus those founders will be harder to track down, and the channels will be more difficult to access.
I also spoke with several of my promoter friends to find out what they look for in submissions, which I put to the descriptions of those channels.
Before approaching any of these channels with your music, make sure you’ve listened to at least five of their most recent uploads to get a sense of the type of music they like.
