Caroline Bottomley from Radar Music Videos recently chaired a panel at the legendary music industry conference Midem. Top industry professionals discussed strategies for promoting and making money from your videos and here are some of the top tips they shared.

The importance of YouTube

Having your video on YouTube is essential for musicians:

availability (YouTube is the primary search tool for music). shareability (it’s easy to share and embed from YouTube). monetisable streams (YouTube LOVE music videos and encourage partnerships with labels and artists). statistics (radio decisions re playlisting are commonly based on YouTube stats).How to become a YouTube partner

YouTube are making it increasingly easy to become a partner, which means you can earn money from your video views. (YouTube Partners)
Partnership also improves search rankings for videos in your channel.
There’s a myth you need to have over 100,000 views to become eligible – not true.
YouTube want more quality music content in the partnership scheme, so get registered.

A YouTube Don’t

Don’t split views. Upload the video to the artist channel and favourite in the label channel. Favouriting means the video will show up on the label channel, but the views all aggregate on the artist’ copy.

Pros and Cons of Monetised Ads

You earn money, versus monetised videos can be less viral – artists and sometimes fans hate ads. Sharing is often the most important metric for a video, above and beyond monetisation.
Two kinds of ad: 30 sec pre-roll, very intrusive but high earning and 5 sec skippable banners.
Infectious Music don’t run ads for the first two weeks of a new artist’s campaign – they consider ads can be THAT off-putting to fans of new acts.
Monetised videos become unavailable to German and Chinese fans, due to lack of licensing agreements in those territories.

The Pros of VEVO

The biggest global network dedicated to music visuals.
Improved recommendation to viewers – who stay longer and watch more.
Higher earnings for partners.
They will do special promotion projects with the right partners.
They like independent artists, there are many ways for independent artists to get onto VEVO, eg via The Orchard.

The Cons of VEVO

You have to upload a new master file, so you’re splitting views across YouTube and VEVO.
The ads are the more intrusive type ads.
You can’t opt out of ad type, eg you can’t opt out of alcohol ads.
VEVO works better for some kinds of artists than others.

Packshot and Lyric Videos

It’s useful to have all your tracks on YouTube – if you don’t then someone else will.
Packshot videos are quickest and cheapest way to do this. If quality content is important, lyric videos are a good solution.
Always service a video when you’re going to radio.

UGC User Generated Content

Various responses exist for YouTube partners; Don’t allow, which serves up a stern looking message. Allow but monetise, which takes away some creative control.

Video for Promotion and Discovery

Channels such as Balcony TV can deliver an audience, but don’t yet deliver monetisation. Very useful for new artists, where growing a fan base is more relevant than monetising views.

Buying Ads for Promotion and Discovery

Link your Google adwords account to your YouTube channel and buy retargeting ads. This allows you to serve relevant ads to people who have already visited your channel. It can be a highly effective way to build views and channel subscribers.
Subscribers are extremely valuable – every time you serve a new video you can send a bespoke message to subscribers’ inboxes.

The Top Industry Professionals on the panel are:

Eric McKay, Business Development VEVO
Connie Meade, Label Manager, Infectious Music
Stephen O’Regan, Founder, Balcony TV
Patrick Ross, Label Services, Kobalt
Caroline Bottomley is Managing Director of the Radar Music Videos network.