Tag: YouTube

Categories
News

Haulix Advice: Optimizing Your YouTube Presence (Pt. 3)

Hello, everyone! Welcome to the third installment of our ongoing series on YouTube optimization. This will be the last installment in this series before 2014 and also one of the final Advice columns of the year. If you have any questions regarding the content of this article, or if you have a topic you would like to see address in the coming weeks, please email james@haulix.com and share your thoughts.

If you have been following this optimization series since its launch earlier this month then you’ll hopefully remember our coverage on metadata and the importance of profile design. This week we’re continuing our efforts to better your presence by taking a look at the importance of longterm care for your content, and why keeping tabs on the latest YouTube updates may help boost your streaming revenue.

One of the many reasons technology is so exciting is the ability for it to evolve in leaps and bounds over relatively short periods of time. YouTube, for example, has changed greatly from its original design. Videos uploaded in 2006 or 2007 now look like home movies shot on VHS in comparison to the slick HD clips of today. As an example, here is the official video for From First To Last’s 2004 hit, “Ride The Wings Of Pestilence,” which was uploaded in 2006.

A little rough, right? The clip has received nearly 2 million views since launch, which is 2 million people – fans new and old – who found this to be the highest quality version of this clip available online. They may still enjoy the song and video in its current state, but the likelihood of sharing low quality material like this is relatively low.

Now look at this video from Rise Records’ Crown The Empire, which was created when the band was still unsigned:

You don’t need me writing at length to understand the quality of the above video is exponentially better than the previous clip, even if you do not enjoy the song quite as much. A big part of this is due to when the clips were uploaded and the type of files YouTube was capable of hosting at that time. Things were simpler when that From Fist To Last clip went live, and as a result of the person in control of the account that posted the clip not maintaining its presence a beloved single is beginning to show its age.

Whether you’re a new artist on the scene, or an independent talent a decade into your career, it is incredibly important that you dedicate time to regularly update and maintain the videos you have posted online. YouTube is now the number one method of music discovery for the teen market and it is winning over more adult demographics with each passing year. Regardless of your sound video is going to play a major role in raising awareness for your music and brand if you hope to make it in the current music industry. This not only means you need to put extra effort into your video content, but you also need to maintain your presence on the video market as new technology and updates becomes available. Like songs available to stream online, you never when someone will come across your video and/or how familiar they will be with your music beforehand. Every video you post could very likely serve as a first impression for though sands of people, if not millions over time.

Another reason to care about the quality your video library is how it may or may not impact your income. YouTube offers a number of ways to monetize through its site, whether allowing advertisements or adding purchase links, and
more opportunities are being added on a regular basis. Regular maintenance of your video library will allow for you take full advantage of these opportunities as they become available, as well as offer you the ability to update the quality of your hosted clips as new capabilities are added. As we mentioned above, sharing is key to success in the video market, and maintaining a library of high quality clips will go a long way towards encouraging social engagement.

Music videos do not have the same characteristics as most viral videos, but many do possess the potential for high virility if marketed correctly. Music videos, like great songs, are something people will share with friends and family for years to come. When future generations study the music of the past, videos will play a large role in understanding not only the song, but the culture that inspired it. That is, after all, what music videos represent. Whether or not you want to admit there is no denying the influence Miley Cyrus has had on pop culture in 2013, and a large reason for that impact is owed to her music videos. “We Can’t Stop” presented the reinvented Miley to the world, and within days the clip racked up tens of millions of plays. “Wrecking Ball,” which followed a few short months later, did even more impressive numbers while featuring a far more naked Cyrus. Some of us laughed at the clip, others found their new pop idol, but regardless of where you stand the song changed how you viewed the world. For days, if not weeks after you and friends joked about Miley, her twerking, and all the teens online trying to copy their newfound heroine. Her album, Bangerz, did none of that, and almost soon as it hit shelves it was no longer part of the conversation. That’s not a slight against Miley, but simply listening to her ‘wild new style’ is not enough to generate the type of headlines made from singing the same material while straddling construction equipment in the nude. The album may (probably) be forgotten, but the videos live on for as long as sites like YouTube exists, and they will continue to be a topic of conversation every time someone talks about culture in 2013 until the end of time. The same goes for your content, and you should not take that knowledge for granted.

We cannot tell you how to make videos that will go viral, but we can tell you that high quality footage goes a long way toward winning over increasingly distracted young minds. By regularly maintaining and updating your video library you are positioning your content to be received by viewers worldwide in the way that represents you best. Do not underestimate the power of first impressions.

Categories
News

Haulix Advice: Optimizing Your YouTube Presence (Pt. 2)

Hello and welcome to the final Advice column of the week! We have had a lot of fun on the blog this week, and we’re excited to cap things off with the second installment of our ongoing series on YouTube optimization. If you have an idea for a future installment of this column, or if you have any questions you would like to see tackled in the weeks ahead, please do not hesitate to email james@haulix.com and share your thoughts.

If you stopped by this blog last week there is a decent chance you caught the debut of our new series on YouTube optimization. That column, which can be found here, covers the basics of metadata and how proper tagging can benefit your ranking in search results. This week we’re looking at profile (know as your ‘channel’) design, and how following a few simple tips can make a wealth of difference in your overall engagement. To do this, we reached out to our good friends at Digital Tour Bus, and once again they were kind enough to collaborate on this piece.

Before we dive in, I wanted to inform you that this series will be continuing for at least another two weeks (until the end of 2013). We are tentatively planning a 2014 installment after the next wave of updates rolls out. Make sure you are following us on Twitter and Facebook to ensure you never miss another post.

Setting Up Your Channel For Success

YouTube is a game that is constantly changing. Google is always finding ways to make the site better and faster, with the ultimate goal of improving the experience for their users. That being said, it is important to always keep yourself informed of these changes, if you want your strategy to give you the best results. Here are some sites you should bookmark to keep up with the YouTube scene: YouTube’s Creators Blog, New Media Rockstars and Tubefilter.

In this blog, I want to focus on the organization of your YouTube channel. With the new layout that Google introduced early this year, they have provided their channel owners with a lot of new organizational tools.

Take a look at my channel, Digital Tour Bus. If you’re not subscribed to our channel, you’ll immediately see our featured video, which is currently the debut episode of our new series, Cooking at 65 MPH. This spot can either be used for a video that you want all of your channel viewers to watch or for an introduction video to your channel. We’ve chosen to feature an existing video until we can come up with the most effective way to introduce our channel in a trailer.

Right under the featured video, you’ll see what are called “shelves.” With the new layout that YouTube launched, this is one of the big organizational features they started offering. There are a lot you can do with a shelf. If you look at DTB’s profile, we currently have shelves for our “recent videos,” “popular videos,” and a few individual “playlists,” as well as a shelf to display all of our playlists. My goal with DTB’s shelf placements is to showcase the variety that we offer. You might want to use the shelves for a different reason to effectively showcase your videos.

Now, I want to move onto the “About” tab. It’s very important that you take the time to fill this page out and take advantage of all the space and sections that YouTube provides you.

– Fill out your bio section. I recommend putting something short and sweet in there. Also, if you plan on releasing videos on a specific schedule (which is really important to do), then outline your release schedule there as well!

– Populate the links section they provide. They allow you to put ten custom links, which you can title yourself and send your visitors to wherever you want to go to check you out. They also allow you to have four additional links, which display in the bottom right of your top banner. These can only be linked to a list of pre-approved sites, including: Google+, Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, etc.

– Use the feature channels section (below the links) to recommend other accounts for your viewers to check out. This is a great area to recommend your friends, similar channels that you’d like your viewers to compare you to, etc.

– Below the feature channels, you have the option to display the channels you’re currently subscribed to. I currently have this option disabled, but you’re more than welcome to use it to showcase more of your friends and related channels!

Since we’re talking about organization, you can ignore the “Videos” and “Discussion” tabs for now. Just make sure you take the time to reply to fans who leave you comments in your discussion section!

The last thing you need to do to complete the overall organization and branding of your channel is create a header image and profile image that will be used to represent you across the entire YouTube platform. This can be a very tricky process and I suggest to keep it simple and let your videos speak for themselves. Lucky for us, YouTube knows how overly complicated their header image design is and they provided you with a breakdown of the image. Use that to your advantage!

Categories
News

Haulix Advice: Optimizing Your YouTube Presence (Pt. 1)

Hello, everyone. Welcome to the first advice column of the month! It has been a couple weeks since we last touched on the world of YouTube, but after receiving a number of questions and suggestions in the last week we’ve decided to revisit the powerful video sharing platform once more. If there are any topics you would like to see covered in the months ahead, please do not hesitate to email james@haulix.com and share your thoughts.

Last time we talked about YouTube we discussed the powerful influence its community can have on your career trajectory, and in order to leverage that to the best of your abilities you will need to make the most of each opportunity for reach optimization offered on the site. We hope to touch on each of those areas in the weeks ahead, starting this afternoon with a closer look at how metadata can make a world of difference in the success of your video campaigns.

Before we go any further it needs to be said that content is king when it comes to success online. Just as you can only lead a horse to water, but not force it to drink, you can only lead potential fans to your content. Making something they want to see is entirely up to you.

So, What is metadata?

Good question. I always hate when I’m trying to learn something online and the person writing the content doesn’t take the time to explain the lingo. Metadata means ‘data about data,’ or for our purposes ‘information about your video content,’ and it greatly improves the quality of said content. Especially with video, where its content (descriptions of what’s seen and happening) are not directly understandable by a computer, metadata allows for efficient search terms to be created.

When it comes to YouTube, metadata makes up the title, descriptions and tags of your videos. Inserting descriptive information about your video into these areas will impact how your clip ranks on both YouTube and Google. What follows are a few quick tips about making the most of these sections on your content:

1. Correctly (and descriptively) title your video. Always.

It may seem like this is starting off a little too obvious, but I’ve lost count of how many time an indie artist has linked me to video content that is simply a song title or worse, a series of numbers followed by the original video extension (PROTIP: no one shares something titled ‘929592.avi’). Be creative, and do your best to develop a concise, descriptive title that uses phrases people would search if hoping to find your video. As an example, if you’re releasing a new video for your single, something long the lines of ‘[band name] – [song title] (music video)’ would be a good idea. This ensures people searching any combination of your name, song title, and the term ‘music video’ will be directed towards your content.

There are people who use YouTube as a music discovery engine, and descriptive titles will give you a better chance of being spotted by people not specifically searching for your band.

2. Never take the video description for granted.

You may think your art speaks for itself, but that is never the case when audio and video files interact with computers. Leveraging the space allotted for a video description on your content’s unique page will undoubtedly help raise your overall visibility. Describe the content, including the lyrics when applicable (music videos), and always be sure to let people know where they should go to learn more about your band. An example of a great video description, courtesy of our friends at Digital Tour Bus, can be found below:

Fans and unfamiliar music listeners who enjoy your content will want to know more about your band and future efforts. This space offers you the opportunity to immediately give them everything they need to know, while promoting future engagement on additional channels.

3. Add accurate tags to your videos.

YouTube’s tagging feature allows users to highlight key words and phrases that are relevant to the content of the clip, but do not necessarily fit in the title. For bands, this is a goldmine of opportunity to leverage the search habits of hungry music fans. If not handled correctly however, it can also make you look like a fool. The only content that should go into this section are terms and phrases relevant to your music and the content contained in the video. Trying to piggyback on popular/trendy phrasing like ‘cute cats’ or ‘harlem shake’ will get you nowhere.

For proper optimization, use ten to twenty tags per video when editing this section. Phrases tend to work better than single terms, but you should use whatever is comfortable and relevant to you. Highlight your genre (once or twice – be specific), song title, band name, album title, etc.

REMEMBER: Metadata is only one piece to the grand puzzle that is YouTube and Google ranking. Properly optimizing these sections of new video uploads helps get your videos discovered by a relevant audience more likely to watch your video. The more your video is watched in a short amount of time, the higher it will rank for a variety of key phrases related to its subject.

There will be additional chapters to this study later this month, so make sure you check back often for updates. You can stay up-to-date on the go by following us on Twitter and Facebook.

Categories
News

Haulix Advice: The Importance Of YouTube

Hello and welcome to the latest installment of our Advice series. We plan on covering YouTube a lot in the next month or two, and this afternoon we’re kicking off those efforts with a look at what makes this video sharing network such a great tool for artists on the rise. If you have a recommendation for a future installment of this column, or if you have a question you would like us to tackle in the weeks ahead, please email james@haulix.com and share your ideas. We can also be found on Twitter and Facebook.

There are arguments to be made for the importance of a well-maintained presence on any major social media network, but in 2013 there may be no channel more important for artists on the rise than YouTube. Since launching in the mid-2000s YouTube has risen from humble beginnings as a place to watch silly cat videos to being the number one destination for people under 18 hoping to discover new music. Yes, YouTube tops Facebook, iTunes, Pandora, Spotify, Rdio, terrestrial radio, and even your brother’s ‘awesome’ music blog when it comes to attracting music fans hungry for new ideas, and today we’re going to look at why it’s important that you take an active approach to controlling how your music is seen (and heard) on the world’s number one video sharing site.

How did YouTube outpace all its competition for new music discovery with the younger and arguably most important demographic of fans? One word: Sharing. Not long ago, anyone hoping to share a song they heard on CD or radio would have to put in quite a bit of effort to give or otherwise tell the world about that material. You needed to make a copy, upload that to the internet or burn it to a cd, and then find another service (digital or physical) to deliver it. In a world where YouTube exists sharing is no longer a hassle. It has become as simple as copying and pasting a URL to any friend/network/email/etc. you can imagine, and it will probably become simpler still. Anyone can share any song or clip from YouTube with countless people in the time it takes to breathe a single breath, and that has made a major difference in the site’s popularity. Additionally, you have to consider that YouTube is essentially available anywhere you have an internet connection. If I see a clip from our offices here at Haulix that I want to share I can send it to my mom’s iPad in Michigan, my brother’s cell phone in Iowa, and to half a dozen industry friends worldwide on their preferred devices with a single link that works (almost) 100% of the time. No other streaming service comes close to that kind of universal connectivity.

The ease of sharing and connectivity that YouTube has given music fans has allowed them to play a more immediately active role in the success of artists, and by pairing great music with matching visuals you can leverage that ease of action to help your career. People love sharing great content, and if you put extra effort into your digital content (video updates, lyric videos, etc.) people will notice and help you get the word out. Think OK GO, Justin Bieber, or Gotye would have found success nearly as fast without the aid of thousands of curious music fans sharing their videos? Probably not.

There is no downplaying the importance of having a website, writing great songs, playing gigs, doing interviews, and running smart PR campaigns, but there are opportunities available to creative minds through YouTube that were previously unavailable to unsigned talent as recently as a decade ago. In a way similar to great covers, great video content can make your art accessible to people who otherwise may have never given you the time of day. Don’t take that for granted.

As if all of this was not reason enough to join YouTube and dedicated extra time to crafting video materials, it’s worth mentioning that YouTube is one of the few social networks that allow artists to monetize the content they create. Through YouTube’s Partner Program allows channel owners to monetize their content through advertising, but that’s just one of many ways the service can put a few extra bucks into your new van fund. Head over to Billboard for a rundown of additional money-making opportunities offered by YouTube.

We are nowhere near done covering all the great opportunities offered by leveraging the power of YouTube and its audience. Stay tuned for additional advice columns on this powerful social tool in the weeks ahead.

Categories
News

Haulix Advice: The Importance Of Video Updates

Hello, everyone! Welcome to the final Advice column of the week. We’ve had a lot of fun exploring various aspect of life as an artist in recent days, and in today’s post we’re going to focus on sharing your life with fans. If you have any suggestions for a future installment of this series, or if you have a question you would like to see tackled in the weeks ahead, please email james@haulix.com and share your thoughts. You can also find us on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

People like to talk about how technology has changed the way we do things in life, but it has also dramatically impacted the way we relate and connect to one another as people. When The Beatles appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show people watching at home had to put in A LOT of effort to learn about the band who had just blown them away on television. They had to find news articles on the group in big papers, or hope someone on another television program would mention or feature them in the future. There was no internet, no text messaging program, nothing.

Back then, even bands far less popular than The Beatles had a gap in their relationship with fans that no longer exists in the modern age. Now when people see someone on Jimmy Kimmel (or Kimmel’s YouTube channel) they can immediately learn everything about them, or at least how they are perceived, with a few simple clicks. They can download their discography while visiting the band’s website, then look up reviews of recent releases, return to YouTube for music videos, follow/like social media pages to ensure they never miss another update, and buy tickets to the group’s next performance without leaving the chair they were in when they first discovered said group 5-10 minutes prior. The capabilities of the internet are no doubt amazing, but unless you take an active approach to engaging those interested in your music the perception of your work will be left to the anonymous and numerous bloggers/commenters/journalists/etc lurking online. The best way to do that for the time being is with video, and in today’s post we’re going to look at what makes the role of video so important in your future promotional efforts.

First and foremost, video is far more entertaining than pretty much any other piece of content you can put online aside from new music (and if you’re releasing music in 2013 it better have a YouTube stream included). It’s the next best thing to interacting with you in person, and it offers your fans a chance to learn about the individual personalities that combine to create the art they love. You’re a band and a business, yes, but you’re people first and your fans want to feel like they know the human beings who feel the emotions being conveyed in the music.

As you begin to plan your video content, keep in mind that quality far outweighs quantity, and the better your promotional materials look the better your chances will be of getting said material featured on news sites. Journalists, like fans, are not all that interested in grainy cell phone videos shot in areas with lots of external noise. Spend some time researching affordable and transportable video setups, then find time each week/month to focus on connecting with your fans. You can take the straightforward route of having members update supporters on the latest developments, which should at least happen seasonally, or you can take a more creative route and deliver original content on a recurring basis. For some this means running a cover song series that asks fans to submit answers via social media (great cross-marketing trick), while for others it means a monthly Q&A based on questions submitted through Tumblr (also good cross- marketing).

The possibilities for video content are relatively endless, but if you start something it is of the utmost importance that you see it through. The updates, whatever they may be, are forging new connections with listeners who will expect to be given attention on a regular basis. This means new content, and as long as you can stick with it you will see those supporters begin to grow. Like falling in love with a television show, people who anxiously await for your updates will want to share their excitement with others. Keep it coming and the word will continue to spread.

We put together a bulleted tipsheet to help get you on the right track with your own video efforts. Some of the following points were inspired by our friends at Wistia, who know more about video than anyone we know, while others were crafted specifically for this column. If you have any questions, feel free to comment at the end of this post.

  • Keep your script conversational and write it in your own words.
  • Don’t be afraid to show your personality.
  • Don’t be afraid to try new things
  • Focus on content, not on polish; don’t be afraid to show that you’re fallible!
  • View every video you make as an opportunity to strengthen your relationship with fans
  • Make video consistently.
  • Ask viewers for input, and take what they have to say to heart.
  • Set a schedule and stick to it
  • Promote your own content
Categories
News

Haulix Advice: 3 Tips For Maximizing Your Exposure On YouTube

Hello, everyone. Another afternoon has arrived and we’re prepared to inform/distract with an all-new Advice column that aims to help give you the leg up when it comes to promoting your videos online. If you have an idea for a future installment of this column, or if you have a question you’d like us to tackle, please do not hesitate to email james@haulix.com and share your thoughts.

There are endless possibilities as far as creative ways to promote new video content is concerned, but none of that matters in the slightest if you do not understand the basic ins and outs of YouTube. Yes, we’re all aware sites like Vimeo and DailyMotion are on the rise, but for the sake of today’s column we’re going to address those posting content to the crown jewel of Google’s user-generated media empire. Thousands of hours of content are uploaded daily, and in this article we’re going to provide some basic tips for maximizing your exposure.

My career in music largely involves writing and artist/event promotion, so when people began asking about help with video content I knew it would be wise to consult with someone far more active in that area of the business. I reached out to recently featured blogger Joshua Weilding, founder of Digital Tour Bus, and he was kind enough to assist me in putting together today’s list. If you have any questions, please comment at the end of this post.

Before we begin: If you have been skipping YouTube in your promotional efforts for any reason up to this point, stop reading immediately and create an account. YouTube is the most popular site for video online by a wide margin, and while that means fiercer competition it also means it has the biggest pool of potential new fans. Now, onto the list…

1. Use relevant tags (aka ‘you’re not a cute kitten – get over it’)

After you upload a new video, YouTube allows you to add as many tags as you would like. The goal of this tool is to help the site better service your video to people searching related criteria on their site, but all too often young artists use this section of the site to attempt at cashing in on popular tags (kitten, sex, Drake, etc.) in hopes of grabbing a few extra views. This promotional method rarely, if ever works, and for as long as you leave these irrelevant tags attached to your video they will be visible to those checking out your page. Do you want tricked clicks, or do you want the attention of people searching for new music? Choose wisely.

2. Reply to people who comment on your video

In an age where bands have fans contacting them from at least 3 social networking sites (Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook) at all hours of the day it can be hard to wrap your head around the notion of adding a fourth to the list, but YouTube comments should be a priority for every member of your group. Especially if you’re just starting out, damning or negative comments can have a severe impact on the way people engage with your content. By talking with people, both the supporters and haters, you begin to forge bonds with listeners that can have unknown returns in the days, weeks, and months that follows.

If none of the above appeals to you as a solid reason to engage this audience, consider the fact YouTube’s algorithm for ranking on search pages takes the interaction rates of videos into consideration. The more you communicate, the higher you rank. There are not many places in the social networking landscape where that is the case, so use YouTube as a way to gain a foothold with new listeners and over time it will extend to other areas of your online presence.

3. Sharing is caring, and that goes for press coverage as well.

No one was ever discovered without doing something to promote themselves first. If you want your video to succeed you’re going to have to promote it, and that includes doing whatever you can to gain the attention of blogs/journalists. The more backlinks a video has, the better it will rank.

Tumblr is especially useful as far as social sharing is concerned. Whenever a video is reblogged it counts as a separate backlink, and that number can grow significantly in a small amount of time of posted to the right account.

Categories
News

Haulix Advice: Making The Most Of Cover Songs

Hello and welcome to a brand new edition of Haulix Advice. This column exists to offer guidance to independent artists and those hoping to better their careers through the use of insight given by people currently working in the music industry. If you have a suggestion for a future installment of this series, or if you would like to add your advice to an upcoming column, please do not hesitate to email james@haulix.com and share your thoughts.

Moving away from the festival-related pieces we offered throughout September, today’s Haulix Advice column is on an area of music people often write-off as a mindless gimmick: Cover songs.

Having spent the better part of the last decade working in music, I don’t think a single week has gone by without a reputable artist releasing, or at least performing a cover that made national headlines. It may seem like a cheap ploy to ride someone else’s coattails, but as proof by the continued success of Fearless Records’ Punk Goes… cover series it has become alarmingly clear in recent years that the market for good covers is far more serious than previously believed. Almost every solo artist and band has performed and/or recorded covers in the past, but from what we’ve seen it seems far less understand the proper way to use this marketing tactic to their advantage. So, without further ado, we’d like to present you with 4 tips for making the most of your future cover songs.

1. Timeliness is next to godliness, but nobody like a rush job (aka Nobody cares how well you cover Rebecca Black). When choosing a cover to record or perform, it’s important that the song you choose has not already worn out its welcome with mainstream pop culture. Your goal with this recording is to attract people already addicted to the original by offering them a variation of something they know they enjoy, but if you wait too long to cash in on any particular hit you’ll find yourself with a great reinterpretation that no one has any interest in hearing.

On the flipside, you have to be careful that any cover of a recent hit isn’t pushed to the public before its ready for consumption. One of the biggest mistakes bands tackling covers can make is not putting enough of themselves into the material, and when you rush to complete a cover you run a high risk of glossing over the aspect of originality all covers need to succeed. This actually works perfectly with our next point, which is…

2. It’s better to pick the song you can perform well than the one currently topping the charts. It does not take a rocket scientist to conclude that those hoping to piggyback off the success of other with a cover would be wise to pick the most popular songs, but the truth is that could very easily be a recipe for disaster. Covers should lean on the popularity of other’s work, but if you’re unable to make their music work for the sound you create then your efforts will not get you very far. Think about what you (or your band) could bring to a song before choosing to cover it, then make it a point to work at refining that cover until your vision for a new version is fully realized. Covers delivered without an original twist, just like those boasting a sound that is unusual for the band delivering the cover, drives away far more listeners than it attracts.

3. People like videos. The availability of digital recording technology has made it amazingly simple for anyone who thinks they can carry a tune to churn out a cover of their favorite track. If you want to stand out from the sea of voices hoping to gain exposure from cover efforts, you will need to do everything in your power to get the word out about your work, and one of the best ways to do that in 2013 is through videos. You don’t have to recreate the clip released for the song you’ve chosen to cover, but you should release some type of stream through video networks such as YouTube and Vimeo. This can be a full-on music video, or something more akin to an intimate acoustic clip. Either way, make it happen. The easier it is for people to find your music is always better.

4. You’re not Elton John, Freddie Mercury, or a member of Led Zeppelin. Get over it. There are those who believe there are ‘untouchable songs’ that should never even be considered as candidates for covers. I’m not going to say whether or not this is true, but as an artist hoping to make the most of a cover you would be wise to steer clear of songs considered classic or ‘known to all.’ It’s not that these songs are incapable of being redone, but like songs who have run their course at radio these tracks have worn down listeners to a point where they no longer desire to hear another person’s reinterpretation (unless, of course, it’s being half-screamed at them from a dingy karaoke bar).

Insight from around the music industry:

“I think the key in picking a solid cover song for your band to record or crank out live lies in the emotion that you can add to the song. You have to be able to make it yours. So, it is important to pick something that you really love. Pick something that moves you. No one has ever said, "Man, I really wish there were more cover bands and lounge singers.” So, if you’re going to take someone’s art and put it out there you have to be able to put your thumbprint on it. It has to floor your audience. Make sure that it not only connects withy our listener, but it also connects with you.“ – Josh Hammond, Publicist (Another Reybee Production)

"If you plan on releasing your covers on YouTube, there are two really important factors to consider, timing and consistency. If you want any chance at viral success, make sire you put out a high quality cover, within a fees days of the song’s release. If you’re looking to gain a substantial following, give the viewers a predictable experience by releasing videos on a strict schedule. That way, people know when to expect a new video to enjoy.” – Joshua Weilding, Digital Tour Bus

“When covering a song it should ideally sound like something you wrote, in your style and with your own spin.” – Jen Appel, The Catalyst Publicity Group

“If you decide to cover the hottest song on the radio, you have to assume that several other bands are going to have the same exact idea. If you’re going to follow through with it, you better make sure that your cover brings something fresh to the table that the slew of other bands may not be delivering otherwise it’ll be lost and forgotten just as quickly as the original topped the charts.” – Brian Lion, Under The Gun Review

Exit mobile version