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Sharing great music is the first, best step towards supporting it. So this series of articles seeks to provide simple, but effective steps each of you can take towards bolstering your support for your favourite artists. Please forgive if some of this stuff is preaching to the already converted, whether in this article or in Part 1!
YouTube:
Of all the streaming platforms, YouTube offers some of the worst streaming rates per play, and even artists with millions of views and ‘likes’ will earn very little from even their most popular uploads. However, YouTube is a different kind of platform, focusing almost entirely on video output. It has become a vital part of a musician’s armoury.
Ironically, the number of views and ‘likes’ really matters on YouTube. It seems to signal worth. Whether that turns out to be the case is entirely another matter. Even a view of a few seconds counts as a ‘view’, which is a bit bizarre. As with Bandcamp, a short view can be due to a run-over from a previous song/video, but if listeners aren’t aware of this, they won’t know to take care to listen to full songs. Many artists allow you to ‘like’ with a thumbs up, or God forbid, ‘dislike’ a video. The latter opens you up to the dickheads of the world, whose raison d’être is purely to disrupt, but it’s part of the territory and they get bored soon enough.
Most videos are accompanied by some form of written introduction to the song beneath the video. Most viewers seem blissfully unaware that if they click the word ‘more…’ they might find a mix of information from where to buy, song credits, lyrics, the story behind the song or the filming of the video, the video location, and other relevant links. So please remember to click ‘more…’.
Comments are not always enabled on an artist’s YouTube channel, but where they are, don’t be afraid to leave a supportive message. Most of us use some form of moderation. For my own part, I have all comments from new subscribers held until I’ve read them. I respond to the genuine comments, and take a view whether unsolicited stuff is Spam, otherwise malicious, or from one of the aforementioned dickheads! I was trolled by a dickhead in the early days of YouTube, but I think they find that a little harder now that the channel has introduced more safeguards.
Then there’s this word ‘Subscribe’. With Bandcamp, ‘subscribing’ involves paying a nominal annual fee. YouTube ‘Subscribes’ are entirely free. When you click ‘Subscribe’ on YouTube you will accumulate on the left hand side an alphabetical list of the channels to which you subscribe – like a bookmarks column. You will also be notified when those artists release new videos.
Beneath the artist’s image on their YouTube Homepage are a series of tabs – generally four or five of them. Unless I have a Live stream planned, I have four: Home, Videos, Playlists and Posts. There is also a Search Icon to the right of the tabs, where you can type in specifically what you are looking for. So if you type “Standing Stones’ you will find all public videos for my song of that name.
Artists don’t publish all of their videos on their channel. If they select ‘Public’ then everyone sees the videos. ‘Unlisted’ means that if you’ve saved a specific video you can view it as many times as you like, and you can share it, but it is not searchable. ‘Private’ means only the artist can see it, unless they choose to share it privately to another’s email address.
Finally, just like with Bandcamp, an artist has an Analytics page. You can’t see that. This shows them a range of information from new subscribers to the average length of time a video has been viewed. Again, that average time can be skewed by viewers allowing one video to run over into another. The Analytics page can tell you where in the world your audience is from, what devices they tend to view on, and a whole range of stuff that helps, for example, to shape future video output, and sometimes set lists for live shows.
So when you view a video, try to watch it all. If you enjoy it, ‘like’ it, subscribe to the channel, leave a comment, or share it with others.
Peace.
John