{"id":1363,"date":"2013-08-20T18:58:52","date_gmt":"2013-08-21T01:58:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vakseen.com\/site\/?p=1363"},"modified":"2013-08-20T18:58:52","modified_gmt":"2013-08-21T01:58:52","slug":"why-youtube-is-more-important-than-anything-else-in-your-music-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vakseen.com\/site\/why-youtube-is-more-important-than-anything-else-in-your-music-career\/","title":{"rendered":"Why YouTube is More Important Than Anything Else in Your Music Career"},"content":{"rendered":"

YouTube: the new radio, the new MTV, the new record store, the new music magazine, the new everything<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Let\u2019s state the obvious: the world has changed, especially for independent musicians.<\/p>\n

Music consumers aren\u2019t moving away from the idea of music \u201cownership\u201d outright (a huge part of the global music market still prefers to buy CDs, after all), but legal alternatives to ownership (ummm\u2026 streaming!) have dramatically changed the way listeners engage with music in the first place.<\/p>\n

Convenience and cost are a big part of that shift, of course; Spotify gives you access to an enormous catalog of tunes, anywhere you go, for the price of two cups of coffee per month.\u00a0But sharability is also a huge factor in our changing habits.<\/strong>\u00a0When you listened to a song on terrestrial radio,\u00a0or on a listening station at a record store, or even on a CD \u2014 it took some effort to share that experience. (Well, you\u2019d at least have to type out a tweet and search around online to find a good link to share that music with your friends).<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s where YouTube has really succeeded.\u00a0Not only is YouTube THE most popular online tool for music discovery, but amongst the younger demographic (18-) it\u2019s also become THE preferred platform for listening to music<\/strong>. I have to assume that the user-friendly social aspect of YouTube (pretty seamless integration with Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc.) is a big part of that \u2014 in addition to convenience (smartphone apps) and cost (free). Oh, and then there\u2019s that whole VIDEO thing, too.<\/p>\n

As an artist \u2014 absolutely \u2014 you should have a website, and write good songs, and practice, and play gigs, and do interviews, and run smart PR campaigns, and have worldwide music distribution. But when you combine a great song with great visuals, you\u2019re greatly magnifying your greatness, which is great for your career.\u00a0\"icon\u00a0\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2026 and THAT\u2019s why YouTube can be the most powerful tool you have to promote your music career. Think of artists like OK Go, Gotye, Walk Off the Earth, Justin Bieber, Karmin, and Pamplemoose. None of these artists\u2019 careers would have gone nearly as far without YouTube.<\/p>\n

And the social aspects of YouTube\u2019s functionality (easy sharing and embedding, views counter, comments section, etc.) means that\u00a0music fans can now play a more active and immediate role in recommending music to other listeners<\/strong>. So YouTube is even taking on some of the responsibilities that traditional print media once played.<\/p>\n

So, have I convinced you yet that you should be spending more energy creating YouTube videos your fans will love to share? Here\u2019s a recap:<\/p>\n

5 reasons you should be boosting your presence on YouTube<\/strong><\/h3>\n

1. YouTube is the #1 search engine for music fans<\/p>\n

2. YouTube has become the #1 listening platform for younger music fans<\/p>\n

3. Many artists have built their careers strictly through YouTube<\/p>\n

4. There\u2019s no easier way to beam your music\/brand\/personality into someone\u2019s ears\/eyes\/home\/imagination than through engaging music videos<\/p>\n

5. Big ad-revenue is being generated by YouTube and you can earn your share by\u00a0monetizing your music on YouTube<\/a><\/p>\n

Once you\u2019ve used YouTube to get your music videos heard, seen, and shared in the first place, THEN you can sell your music to your new fans, collect email contacts to build your newsletter list, and get folks to come out to your shows.<\/p>\n

Via CDBaby<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

YouTube: the new radio, the new MTV, the new record store, the new music magazine, the new everything Let\u2019s state the obvious: the world has changed, especially for independent musicians. Music consumers aren\u2019t moving away from the idea of music \u201cownership\u201d outright (a huge part of the global music market still prefers to buy CDs, after all), but legal alternatives to ownership (ummm\u2026 streaming!) have dramatically changed the way listeners […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1364,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[223],"class_list":["post-1363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry-tips","tag-marketing-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vakseen.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vakseen.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vakseen.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vakseen.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vakseen.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1363"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vakseen.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1363\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1365,"href":"https:\/\/vakseen.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1363\/revisions\/1365"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vakseen.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vakseen.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vakseen.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vakseen.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}