Music publishers, societies and PROs

If you are a music publisher, society or PRO, there are many ways to grow your audience through the power of a YouTube channel. Your organisation's YouTube channel serves as a direct gateway to your roster, members, clients or affiliates, as well as to their own teams and fans. Think of your channel as the most customisable tool in your arsenal of promotional materials. Your YouTube channel visually tells the story of your catalogue and roster. In fact, it's your organisation's very own visual discography – and that's just the beginning! Your channel is an all-encompassing destination to showcase your roster, members, clients or affiliates to the world. You can also use your channel to highlight new signings and catalogue milestones, to showcase events and to promote other endeavours relevant to your organisation.

The promotional power of your YouTube channel

Aside from serving as a central hub to showcase your organisation's catalogue and roster, a regularly maintained YouTube channel also serves as a living, breathing one-sheet. In other words, your channel can help you and your team secure opportunities like sessions, cuts, sync placements or other collaborations.

Tip: Set up your channel as a Brand Account so that multiple users can manage the channel from their own Google Account/email.

Define your channel goals

While each organisation has a unique set of goals, here are a few general tips to consider as you build out your YouTube presence.

You can use your channel to:

• Replace a traditional one-sheet to create a unique presence that leaves a customised footprint of your organisation
• Highlight new roster/member signings
• Spotlight roster/member new releases, hits, chart achievements or hidden catalogue gems
• Pitch and secure cuts, sessions, sync placements and other creative opportunities for your roster/members
• Showcase your organisation's highlights such as industry awards and notable roster/member honours
• Celebrate roster/member milestones
• Create a centralised place for your roster/members to interact and connect

Use your channel to share your music

Your YouTube channel is a vehicle for sharing music or content with others. One way in which this may be done is by leveraging playlists. What makes this method of sharing music so unique is that it is accompanied by a video, creating a richer music experience, as well as a true audiovisual representation of your catalogue and roster. Think about use cases where you want to send roster/member releases for a potential collaboration or opportunity, and how the added video element can enhance the work.

Tip: Sharing music via playlists is especially useful for demos. Share demos through an unlisted playlist, which is only accessible to those with whom the link is made available.

Build your channel

Now that we have covered these foundational topics, the next step is to create your new YouTube channel and review some insider tips. Then, it's time to define your larger content strategy and start thinking about how to artfully showcase your visual discography.

Develop a content strategy

Visit our content strategies resource to gain an understanding of two main strategies in YouTube channel development. Both of these approaches can be utilised simultaneously and in support of one another. Also, consider going live. Live streaming from your channel is a great way to share a real-time look into your roster/members' lives both in and out of the studio. Lastly, don't forget to consider using YouTube Shorts to tease upcoming content or releases.

Deep dive: Playlists

Playlists are an organisational tool to keep fans engaged through a curated grouping of videos. You can customise a playlist name to describe and categorise the content featured within it. Ultimately, arrange the content to best represent why it is meaningful to your organisation. And remember, you do not have to upload a video in order to add it to your own playlist. You can curate videos into your own playlists from across the YouTube ecosystem.

Playlist ideas include:

• New roster/member signings
• Roster/member releases, cuts and hits
• Sync placements
• Spotlight on hidden catalogue gems
• Roster/member interviews and content
• Education and advocacy
• Award show content

Here are several real-life examples of playlists that music publishers, societies and PROs have created on their own channels:

Enjoy these hit singles of the last two decades:

BMI's Emoji That Track – Season 3

Support/Create/Advocate

Abramus ROCK

Tip: If you have curated playlists on other services, replicating them on YouTube is a best practice.