Songwriters and producers

If you are a songwriter or producer, there are many ways to grow your audience through the power of a YouTube channel. In addition to serving as a direct gateway to your fans and collaborators, think of your channel as the most customisable tool in your arsenal of promotional materials. Your YouTube channel visually tells the story of your releases and successes. In fact, it's your very own visual discography – and that's just the beginning. Your channel is an all-encompassing destination to showcase your body of work to your fans, your unique community of collaborators and co-writers, and the music industry at large.

The promotional power of your YouTube channel

Aside from serving as a central hub for your discography, a regularly maintained YouTube channel also serves as a living, breathing one-sheet that can help you and your team secure opportunities like sessions, cuts, sync placements or other collaborations.

Define your channel goals

While every songwriter and producer has their own set of goals, here are a few general tips to consider as you build out your presence on YouTube.

You can use your channel to:

• Replace a traditional one-sheet
• Act as a promotional tool to pitch and secure cuts, sessions, sync placements and other creative opportunities
• Attract new co-writers and artist collaborators
• Create an intimate setting for your co-writers, fans and team to gather and connect
• Shine a light on your unique creative process
• Keep your fans and larger creative community engaged with your career
• Showcase your personality and interests outside of creating music

Use your channel to share your music

Your YouTube channel is also a vehicle for sharing your music 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 discography. Think about use cases where you want to send a selection of your catalogue for a potential collaboration or opportunity, and how the added video element can enhance your 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've covered these foundational topics, the next step is to create your new YouTube channel (if you haven't already) 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.

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

Develop a content strategy

Visit our content strategies resource to learn about the two main strategies behind YouTube channel development. You can use both approaches 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 everyday life, both in and out of the studio. Lastly, don't forget to consider using YouTube Shorts to tease upcoming content or releases.

Monetise your channel

Whether you're a songwriter or producer, YouTube can help you reach your creative community and earn revenue. When you're part of the YouTube Partner Programme, you will be eligible to tap into multiple revenue streams (as long as they are available in your country and you meet the criteria). Once in the YouTube Partner Programme, you can choose how you want to monetise. Note that for your videos to be eligible for monetisation, you must own all the rights to commercially use all visual and audio elements. With our content strategies in mind, some examples of these videos could be: sharing anecdotes from memorable writing sessions, studio tours, exclusive Q&As or educational content. Lastly, if you are monetising on YouTube, make sure that you follow YouTube's monetisation policies. Learn more about the programme, how it works and how to apply.

Tip: Learn more about ways to earn money on YouTube.