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There are THOUSANDS of videos on how to promote yourself as a YouTuber or a vlogger, but if you search for how to promote your music on YouTube, it's unbelievably laughable how bad the information is and how little exists.

YouTube is your potential fans' first impression, and depending on whose information you believe, it's either the biggest or second biggest music discovery platform on the web.

It's absolutely critical since YouTube is where the most music is consumed and the world's 2nd largest search engine - 85% of music listening is active, with people watching videos not passively streaming in the background.

Through years of working on album release roll-outs, I've uncovered tons of secrets that big channels and labels know, and I've built a clear framework for optimizing your channel with even more insights from recent weeks. In this video, I'm going to teach you everything you need to know about promoting your music on YouTube.

5 Pillars Framework

As a solution, I have developed a 5 Pillars Framework for how to look at your YouTube presence. Basically, you can use these to figure out how you are not doing as well as you could and to optimize your channel:

1. Lure - This involves making a good Thumbnail & Title and getting viewers to choose your video. 

2. Ignite - This is how we try to juice the YouTube Algorithm to boost you

3. Entertain - This is how we keep your videos so they keep long session times so YouTube recommends them

4. Retain - This is how we build viewer loyalty and a subscriber base.

5. Optimise - These are the small details that can help make small differences in helping you get more views and discovery. 

Before we dive into these pillars - I have a whole catalog of videos about growing your fanbase - one of the most important being the ones where I cover consistent sustained promotion (CSP). We'll skip that for now since I've talked about it extensively, but if you're new to this, I highly recommend you learn and practice CSP - since this is the first and most crucial step before any of what I tell you next comes into play.

LURE

YouTube’s Algorithm Changed…

One of the wildest things that’s happened recently is how YouTube changed its algorithm. Now, it’s putting tons of artists on the browse page, even if they don’t have a lot of views or subscribers. This is huge because the algorithm has returned to functioning more like it did years ago when I discovered so much music through YouTube’s browse page suggestions or autoplay feature.

Organic Reach For Small Musicians

YouTube is now recommending videos from smaller artists with low play counts, giving them visibility they wouldn’t have had before. For artists who consistently get plays on the platform, this has become one of the main ways to attract new listeners.

But let’s say your video gets featured on the browse page—how do we actually get potential fans to click on it?

Maximizing Clicks for Music Videos

Here’s a funny thing—while thumbnails and titles are everything for YouTubers and vloggers, it’s a bit simpler when it comes to music videos. You don’t need to overcomplicate it, but they still matter.

Titles

For titles, stick to this format: artist name, song name, and then the context—whether it’s an official music video, visualizer, lyric video, playthrough, or even an unboxing. Clarity is key here; let the audience know what they’re about to watch.

SEO

Now, let’s say your song is blowing up because of a specific lyric, like “Meet Cute At The Purge,” but your song title, “International Players Anthem Pt. 2,” doesn’t reflect that viral line everyone associates with it. In this case, use two dashes in the title to include the lyric: “International Players Anthem Pt. 2 – Meet Cute At The Purge.” If you can’t fit it into the title, add it in the first line of the description with something cheeky, like “That song that says Meet Cute At The Purge.” This approach helps your video come up in searches and makes it more likely to be discovered.

You can also use this dash technique to highlight other unique draws to your video—maybe a big guest star or an eye-catching visual element. But don’t stray from this format or treat it as an artistic experiment; this structure plays by YouTube’s rules, and following them boosts your chances of getting views.

Thumbnails

Once the title is handled, the next step is creating a strong thumbnail. While music videos don’t require the same level of thumbnail obsession as vlogs, a compelling visual can make all the difference.

Like everything else, the thumbnail game has become more competitive and skilled over the years. To stand out when users are faced with countless options, your thumbnail needs to do one of three things: grab attention with a striking image, use cultural signifiers, or tap into universal appeal. Here’s how:

1. Use Striking Images: If your music video has a visually stunning moment, take a screenshot of it and use that as your thumbnail. A powerful, dynamic image will naturally draw eyes.

2. Leverage Cultural Signifiers: Thumbnails can subtly tell viewers what kind of music you create. For instance, wearing a spiked leather jacket signals a certain type of punk, while more generic clothing like Stitch Fix and Allbirds might make people think you’re making forgettable background music for NPC losers. Your thumbnail should give people a sense of your style and genre at a glance.

3. Tap Into Universal Appeal: Posting a picture of yourself looking hot works—plain and simple. This doesn’t even need to be a still from the video. A well-composed, captivating image of you can be just as effective.

Think of a thumbnail like product packaging—it communicates the quality and vibe of what’s inside. Packaging can sometimes mislead, but the best examples draw you in immediately. Look at other artists in your micro-genre and study their thumbnails. What tricks are they using to catch your eye? Use that as inspiration to refine your own approach.

Understanding Your Genre’s Visual Language

Once you’ve mastered the basics of thumbnails, the next step is understanding your specific community’s visual cues so you can stand out while still fitting in. Different genres use distinct aesthetics—for example, some rely on heavily filtered or saturated images to create a cohesive vibe, while others use extreme pops of color for attention.

Learn Your Culture & Fine-Tune

Utilize Analytical Tools

The key here is to do your homework. Start by identifying similar artists in your genre and studying their visuals. Tools like Vid IQ and 1 or 10 (both have Chrome extensions) can help you analyze their videos. Look at their outlier performance scores to see which thumbnails are driving clicks. With music, it’s tricky because strong performance often comes down to the song itself, but these tools can still give you valuable insights into patterns and trends.

If you want to make sure your thumbnails are legible and effective, use the free website Thumbsup. This tool lets you see how your thumbnail looks at various sizes, helping you confirm that it translates well and pops at every scale users might encounter.

Study Your Niche

Every micro-genre has its own look and feel. Some might require you to understand color theory, using masks and color correction for bold pops, while others might lean on techniques like black-and-white layers with saturated elements to create an eerie, “evil” aesthetic. These details signal to potential viewers that you’re part of their scene and make your content more inviting to the right audience.

The combination of using outlier tools and making your own observations will guide you toward the visual strategies that resonate most. The ultimate goal is to get people to click so they can hear how good your song is—and nailing the right aesthetic for your community is a big part of that.

Video Preview Hack

Another often-overlooked factor for getting clicks is the video preview that appears when someone hovers over a thumbnail on YouTube. Think of it as a mini trailer for your video. Many creators use this as an opportunity to hook viewers by showcasing the coolest or most striking moments in those first few seconds. This is why you often see music videos starting with a quick flash of exciting shots before easing into the actual narrative—like the singer waking up from a dream.

If you have a particularly striking image or moment, make sure it appears right at the beginning of your video. This small detail can make a big difference in getting people to click and stick around.

IGNITE

Now we move on to the second pillar of getting views on YouTube: igniting the algorithm. This is all about actions you can take to get your video more views after you’ve successfully lured people in.

Triggering the Algorithm

In-Bound Links

The first and most straightforward step, though often overlooked, is leveraging inbound links. YouTube thrives on traffic coming from external sources. When you link your video from Instagram stories, your bio link, X/Twitter/Bluesky, Threads, your website, blogs, message boards, subreddits, Discords, or when your friends repost your video to their fans, you’re signaling to YouTube that your content is worth amplifying.

• Opportunity Time Window

  While many YouTube gurus stress the importance of the first 24-48 hours for driving traffic—and yes, this window can be important—music videos often show a different pattern. If your video suddenly starts receiving a surge of inbound links even months later, YouTube will still pick up on it. When this happens, the algorithm may begin recommending your video across browse pages, sidebars, and “up next” sections, provided it meets certain criteria (which we’ll dive into later).

• SMS + Emailing

  Another powerful way to get inbound links is through emails or SMS to your list, which you get from collecting them through pre-save tools or exclusive tracks to your subscribers like a cover or alternate version. When you send out an email or text with a link to your video, YouTube loves this - if they watch the video or even do it repeatedly, it helps get you in the algorithm and those browse page recommendations. And since these fans were willing to give you their contact, they're usually the most passionate and likely to repeatedly listen and help run up your plays, helping you get in the algorithm.

Linking LFVs to Shorts

The next strategy is often overlooked but makes a big difference in the algorithm - when you post Shorts, link them to your long-form videos. Even if the Short doesn't contain footage from your video, as long as your song is in it, link it to the full YouTube video.

Setting this up is confusing (frankly, it's a stupid design), but here's what you do: Upload your Short, then go to YouTube Studio, click the related video, and set it to one of your long-form videos. This gives Short viewers who like your song a one-click path to your full video, pushing you further into the algorithm.

Direct Search

Lastly, when people are actively searching for your song because they heard it on TikTok or Instagram Reels, it’s a major green light for the algorithm. This kind of organic search activity can work wonders in boosting your video’s visibility.

Nonconventional Hacks

YouTube Playlisting

Everyone focuses on Spotify playlisting, but YouTube playlisting is just as crucial when you're doing your community work.

There are lots of YouTube channels that are influencers in genres that will premiere or playlist songs. Do searches for your micro-genres and try to find them. Sometimes when you're watching a band's video, you'll notice it's actually posted by another channel - these are the ones you want to find. Their contact info is often right on their channel page, so you can submit your music.

I find lots of micro-genres have these channels, and they can get you on the radar of your most likely early fans. The people who get this in their browse page and subscriptions are the die-hard fans looking for this type of music. These playlists can help ignite you into the algorithm - the most avid fans of your micro-genre will often discover you through these and then dive deep into your channel.

Strategic Post Times

Another way to get your video a good start is to check your analytics for when your fans are online if you already have YouTube videos up. Release your video an hour or two before peak times so they can see it before it gets buried.

YouTube Premieres

YouTube's Premieres feature is also amazing - fans can tune in, watch and chat with you, which is great for bond building. But what I like most is that Premieres make a big difference in discovery. They can be recommended to people who've already watched your content, show up in subscriptions and browse functions, and send mobile reminders to watch later. Just don't overuse this tool - save it for your biggest events.

ENTERTAIN

Now, I've talked a lot about minimum viable videos and how you really need a video for every song - it doesn't necessarily need to be the highest-budget video of all time. And if you've missed that, watch that video since it's linked below in the description.

Anyway, this is all to say since a lot of traffic is coming from Shorts, Reels, or TikToks, we need to entertain those broken brains with a video that has some motion. That's why I advise doing at least a little motion in any video you make. Let me break this down while maintaining the original voice and key points:

How To Maximize Sharability

But really, we have a few principles here since honestly, any music video with a good song can get lots of plays - but your chances increase the better it is. If it inspires shares, where friends send it saying "You have to see this," well that'll really help get more numbers and reach people who would potentially like it. If you're interested in me talking more about this, watch my video linked in the description.

Do Sketches

Anyway, as long as we make a video that isn't boring, it can get the job done. But I want to discuss a goal a lot of you don't realize you should have. Many of you think you should put long sketches showing how cool you are at the top of your video, or even worse, at the end. Now, this can sometimes be good for your positioning and help show off your personality, but it nearly never is good to do at the end.

Here's why: Just like short-form videos like TikTok, Reels, and Shorts, we want your fan to go and watch another video. YouTube first cares about the user clicking through to your song, but then they want what's called a "session" where they watch multiple videos. If that happens specifically with your channel, that really helps you get recommended more.

Avoid A Long Tail

So here's the thing - when you have a long outro or black screen, it gives the viewer time to click away, potentially go back to looking for another video, and then go elsewhere or leave the app. We want to avoid that, so leaving long screens or end screens of blank space or skits at the end of the video doesn't help.

Instead, make sure your video is edited nicely and tight. Even if you've seen some of your favorite musicians get away with not doing this, you don't have a built-in fanbase addicted to your music yet and need all the help you can get - the rules for you are not the same.

Trim Off The Fat

But let's say you already have videos up with those long endings - all hope is not lost! If you head to YouTube Studio on desktop, you can see people dropping off and stop watching by going to this graph. Now most videos' goals are to look like a hockey stick and not one with splinters and crooked edges.

But if you're seeing a double-ended hockey stick at the end, you can go into YouTube Studio and trim off the end. The same goes if you put one of those dumb "the music stops and you do a plot in your video in the middle" type things. If you want to get rid of it cause it's screwing up watch time, you can edit it out later.

Quick Tip: If you already have a fanbase that's enthused about you, you can put some BTS stuff that you tell fans will only be up the first 24 hours at the end of the video and during the premiere. But then you can edit it out and put it in a separate video or your Shorts and TikToks later.

Retain

Direct Viewers To Playlists

A way to retain viewers is to always send them to a playlist of your videos.

At the end of your video, you've got those recommendations where you can do some cool stuff - put up two playlists or videos plus a subscribe button. I really recommend using playlists here since they're great for keeping fans engaged and watching.

Create a playlist of songs similar to the one they just watched and put that at the end - this way they'll get served all the related songs they should hear next. Another trick is selecting the "best for the user" video option, where YouTube figures out which of your videos that specific viewer would want to watch next, which really helps with retention.

You can also set it to show your latest video, but this isn't your best "set and forget" option. If you're willing to put in the work, getting specific - like recommending a ballad after a ballad - can be more effective. Just remember when you drop another ballad, you'll need to update those end screens.

• Pro Tip: Put your most similar song as an end screen choice to keep fans watching and build that relationship. Keep these end screens short though - fans get intimidated by longer videos, so aim for 5-10 seconds.

Remember To Update

Here's the thing - whenever you drop a new single, it's your duty to go in and update all those cards, end screens, and playlists on your old videos to link to your new single. And this gets really annoying. Trust me, record labels and management companies have interns and employees doing this all day every day.

Best Practices: Playlists

Think Of SEO

But let's go deeper on using playlists to retain fans. First off, something most people miss about playlists is they need descriptions. This helps them come up in search and gives viewers more context when they're on your channel page. Make sure to title your music playlists with more than just "music videos" - give some context so they're more easily searchable. This also helps when they get shared, since the preview shows that context when a potential fan gets it from a friend.

Create Based On Your Community

Just like I advise on Spotify, you should be making playlists of your favorite local bands and others in your scene. Share these and tag the groups on social media - whenever you update the Spotify playlist, come here and do the same. This teaches YouTube's algorithm to recognize you as similar to those groups and can get their fans to hear you if the other group shares it.

Make playlists featuring similar acts around your size and fanbase - share these on your socials regularly and tag them. This helps build YouTube views and gets you into the algorithm properly.

Share Your Playlist

Spotify and YouTube may promote the artists they choose, but by sharing your playlists on social media, YOU get to control what your listeners hear next.

• Pro Tip: When you drop a new single, make a playlist with that song's name. You don't need to list it on your channel page - just fill it with the songs that you think fans would like most after hearing the new one. Use this playlist for your link-in-bio and socials.

Best Practices: Comments

Respond To Comments FAST

Another way to retain viewers is to handle comments quickly - especially while they're still in a watch session. Download the YouTube Studio app on your phone and let it notify you about comments. Respond as fast as you can to catch them while they're still active. Listen, I have like a million jobs to do, but if you've ever commented on one of my videos, you've probably seen I respond pretty fast.

Reply To Everyone

Make sure to like comments and write back in a way that keeps the conversation going. The more engagement here, the more the algorithm will like it. Remember that little heart button sends fans a notification you loved their comment.

Pro Tip: Before dropping a new video, go heart and reply to comments you haven't answered yet. A lot of times those people will get your new video in their feed - I've seen it work when these same people end up being early commenters on the next video.

Strategically Pin Comments

Right when your video drops, pin a comment that helps people build a relationship with you. Ask fans questions about themselves, point out Easter eggs you've hidden, or tie something in with the video to get them interacting. YouTube rates your video much higher with this engagement.

Just remember - the bigger splash you make in those first one to seven days, the better. Now, you might think you should just go gangbusters the first hour, but remember not everyone can watch right when it premieres or drops. You need a sustained push, but the bigger that initial splash, the more likely the algorithm is to help you out.

Optimize

Now, the final pillar is building out your channel page. Now you may say "Jesse, what the hell does this have to do with promoting my music?"

Maximize Your Channel Page

And as always, I'm going to ask you to chill dog, and listen up. One of the biggest things musicians miss about YouTube and Spotify profiles is this: A great profile helps maximize any attention you get. When an opportunity hits, it can really blow up if you give listeners more reasons to be interested in you - they'll return more often.

Make Yourself Easy To Reach

When your email is impossible to find, you lose press, shows, and potentially bigger opportunities. When you don't have a great trailer on your channel, fans can't build bonds with you. When your profile isn't neat, potential team members may see you as lazy.

It’s Really Not Hard

Here's the crazy thing - it takes a whole 30 minutes to build out your whole profile. Just click around all the tabs and do everything you can to make it look nice. Don't make it a whole day project - just take your existing imagery and fill everything out. Hit Canva, Pixelmator, or Photoshop to make those graphics fit right. Check out what other artists and bands you like are doing with their profiles and see what inspires you.

Channel Tags

Here's something people miss - your channel itself has tags. Put in any keywords people would search for: genre, location, popular song names, your personal names, and album names. You can seriously enter tons of things here so go wild. Just remember, these only help if people actually find what they're looking for, so putting "most handsome singer on Earth" when you look like Shrek with face tattoos ain't gonna go so well.

Channel Trailer

Your trailer needs to be a video that shows your personality, but if you're not comfortable with that, it's cool to just put your latest music video. Just remember this auto-plays, so make it something someone landing on your page would want to keep watching. One thing I noticed about the most viral artists of 2024 is they got their fans to understand their story through these trailers - fans could say "Hey did you know that artist ____." I know so many of you spend forever on EPKs, but telling your story or showing your vibe in 2 to 4 minutes here can really help convert people into supporters.

Suggested Channels

Remember to fill in suggested channels with acts you're friends with and collaborators. You could even reach out to similar artists and trade these placements. But trust me - putting huge artists you respect here looks pathetic and wastes space. Better to leave it empty than list Drake or other massive names.

• Pro Tip: Once you hit 1,000 subscribers, you can get that fancy subscribe watermark button. Make it eye-catching and match your aesthetic - it's a subtle way to boost your subscriber count.

Organize Playlists

Now for playlists - if you've got a lot of them, put a menu in the top or second row so fans can easily navigate. Your top row should be whatever makes the best first impression. Make playlists for everything: music videos, lyric videos, full albums, acoustic versions, remixes, behind-the-scenes, personality stuff. Whatever can be categorized, make a playlist for it.

• Pro Tip: if you've got more than 20 songs out, make a "greatest hits" playlist with your best 5 tracks and put that first. Remember, listeners are used to hitting play on your top songs on Spotify - give them that same easy experience on YouTube.

How To Actually Write A Description

YouTube is always changing how they use descriptions and tags for search, so I like to be safe here. For description, start by describing the video and add any links for pre-orders, streams, or other sites you want to promote.

Describe Your Video

If you've got crazy visuals, describe them in words like a fan would search for them. Like if it's a video where you have people slicing themselves up with broken CDs, describe that here. That's right, you're a real twisted artist, look at you.

Credits

Then do credits - include the producer and mixer of the song since this helps with search and discovery. List any performers and video directors, and credit everyone involved in the video. You'd be shocked how many groups get tons more views when a director or actor blows up after your video is shot - you can benefit from this in views.

Lyrics

Next, and this is important - put your lyrics in the description. This helps your video come up when someone googles a lyric they liked. As long as your lyrics aren't generic as hell, it'll come up in search and that potential fan will find your video.

• Pro Tip: at the bottom of the description, you can add hashtags to show up above your video. I find this kind of corny, but if you want fans to participate in a social media campaign or tag your genre, go for it.

Tags

For tags, put everything we talked about - aliases, names of your album or song, and if your video has crazy visuals, describe that. Any terms someone might search to find you should be here. Add your genres, micro-genres, and even common misspellings of your name since tags help search factor these in subliminally.