Top Strategies for Electronic Music - Labels, DJs, Festivals
Google Confidential and Proprietary Top Strategies for Electronic Music
Table of Contents
Electronic Dance Music is one of the largest and fastest growing music genres on YouTube. In Europe, Middle East and Africa, 5 out of the top 10 “YouTube has become a global focal point music channels are Electronic Music focused and include a range of labels, for electronic music lovers, representing events and DJs. Electronic Music fans are also some of the most engaged a huge shift in the musical and cultural music fans on and off YouTube -- they attend events regularly and share their landscape of our times. Electronic music is a experiences online. What Electronic Music channels have in common are very loyal audiences that want to engage directly with their music. visionary genre driven by digital natives and prosumers where performer and audience Whether you are a label, a DJ or an event producer, YouTube is the place for are often the same thing – YouTube absorbs you to release original content and engage with your audience. and encourages this culture into one destination and has helped put a picture This guide is designed specifically with Electronic Music labels, DJs and event to a historically faceless genre” producers in mind. It will help you understand and apply Electronic Music specific strategies so you can find success on the platform. Ben Turner Co-Founder, IMS (International Music Summit) In addition to highlighting some popular channels in the space, and & AFEM (Association for Electronic Music) explaining top strategies, we have also provided accompanying “ways to do it” to help you get started in building a large and sustainable YouTube presence.
Google Confidential and Proprietary Top Strategies for Electronic Music
Create An Identity: Channel Design Program Like a DJ: Playlists
Let Your Fans Listen: Regular & Uncut Uploads Extend The Life of Live: Clipping & Packaging
Give Backstage Access: Exclusive Content Develop Repeat Viewers: Audience Engagement
Showcase The Experience: Live Sets & Festivals Expand Your Audience: Artist Collaborations
Timing Matters: Publishing Schedule Tap Into Your Community: Off Platform Promotion
Build Hype: Maximising Assets & Samplers Push Purchases: Tickets, Merchandise, Downloads
Make It Discoverable: Metadata
Google Confidential and Proprietary 1 Create an Identity: CHANNEL DESIGN
Design a channel that is consistent with your brand and creates an aesthetically pleasing experience. Optimise your real estate to promote new releases, albums and events.
Channel Icon /AnjunaBeats has a well Channel Banner crafted channel design with consistent branding and is updated to promote upcoming events and releases. InVideo Programming
Featured Channels Welcome Video
Channel Section
Thumbnails
Google Confidential and Proprietary 1 Create an Identity: Ways To Do It
Channel Icon: Design a bright, high contrast avatar that reflects the brand and is recognizable in smaller formats like the channel guide.
Channel Banner: Create a channel banner that is formatted for all devices , clearly articulates the label, DJ or artist’s name and promotes upcoming events.
Welcome Video: Programme your most recent track or create an original preview video.
Thumbnails: Design consistent close-up high definition thumbnails that reflect the title of the video and the content. Include branding that matches the channel aesthetic.
Channel Section: Organize music videos into themed sections for easy navigation and listening.
InVideo Programming: Promote your channel and feature a recent video or playlist across your entire library of uploads.
Featured Channels: Feature channels from your label or promote other related artists.
Google Confidential and Proprietary 2 Let Your Fans Listen: REGULAR & UNCUT UPLOADS
Electronic Music fans tend to be dedicated listeners that want to come back to your channel often. Publish new content regularly and programme original track mixes to give them something to come back to.
Views from Subscribers 300000
A popular US music channel began 250000 uploading at least one video per month in conjunction with their new 200000 album release.
150000 After the increase in upload frequency average monthly views from subscribers 100000 increased by 320%.
50000
Regularly uploading at least 1 video per month 0 1-Jan-13 1-Feb-13 1-Mar-13 1-Apr-13 1-May-13 1-Jun-13 1-Jul-13 1-Aug-13 1-Sep-13 1-Oct-13 1-Nov-13
Google Confidential and Proprietary 2 Let Your Fans Listen: Ways To Do It
Publish Regularly: Publish content to the channel at minimum once a week and communicate this schedule to the audience.
Upload Multiple Tracks: If listeners come back to the same tracks on repeat, make multiple versions of the popular tracks available on the channel to extend viewers watch sessions.
Google Confidential and Proprietary 3 Give Backstage Access: EXCLUSIVE CONTENT
Your fans are looking for exclusive videos. Produce behind the scenes content and clip footage to give them unique access to your artists and events.
/ProtocolRecordings produce a series showcasing the Deniz Koyu shows the making of his track ‘Ruby’ on /Axtone TV. making of their music videos.
Google Confidential and Proprietary 3 Give Backstage Access: Ways To Do It
Create Original Content: Fans are looking for engage more with exclusive content. Produce original content that showcases the talent and the music in a creative way:
Exclusive Tracks: Give your fans something to discover by releasing exclusive tracks and cuts to the channel.
Tour Footage: Allow the audience to see what happens behind the scenes on the artist’s tour by publishing original tour footage.
Artist Content: Let your audience get to the know the artist and hear directly from them by producing vlog content with the talent.
Studio Sessions: Give fans the raw experience of how artists work and where tracks are produced by showcasing the creative process.
Track Creation: Show your audience how their favourite tracks are created and learn from the talent directly.
Google Confidential and Proprietary 4 Showcase the Experience: LIVE SETS & FESTIVALS
Produce live content that captures the full experience of your event. Recreate the live feeling for your fans who can’t be there and for those who want to relive it.
/Q-dance’s closing ritual of the Defqon festival video captures the event and receives viewership from the Netherlands, Germany, France and Mexico. These videos also see high view durations and engagement from Antigua and Barbuda, Caribbean Netherlands, Martinique and Sudan.
Google Confidential and Proprietary 4 Showcase the Experience: Ways To Do It
Get prepared: Live broadcasts may take more preparation than your typical video. Make sure you sufficiently test all the technical components well in advance of your live event.
Let your fans know what is coming: Live events require much more promotion than VOD because you really want fans to tune in at a certain time. In the days leading up to the event, use spoken calls to action to direct viewers to tune in. It is also a great idea to use all your social media outlets to remind people when the live event is starting. Even a dedicated channel trailer about the live event can be a useful promotional tool.
Pay attention to live comments: There are few ways better to build engagement than to respond live to your fans. Keep an eye on the comments and talk back to your audience.
Use Timestamps: Help viewers navigate long content with timestamp links in the description field. Simply add ‘#t=1m50s’ to the end of a video URL.
Google Confidential and Proprietary 5 Timing Matters: PUBLISHING TIMELINE
Plan a timeline for creating and publishing your content to develop an engaged fanbase.
Spinnin’ Records have experienced consistent view and subscriber growth through their regular publishing schedule:
“We believe in consistency of good content. We upload daily and use 8-12 week timelines of promoting and premiering our videos which means theres around 50 timelines active at any given point in time.” - Spinnin’ Records
Google Confidential and Proprietary 5 Timing Matters: Ways To Do It
Album Announced Single(s) Released Album Released Events and Festivals
Content Strategies Content Strategies Content Strategies Content Strategies
• Album teaser/sampler • Lyric or audio video • Official audio streams • Don’t stop uploading! • Live-stream • Official music video for all songs • Record and upload live announcement • Behind-the-scenes • Google+ Hangouts performances in • Countdown to release • Livestream launch party longform and VOD videos • Release studio sessions / • Event trailer/teaser and album making-of’s lineup announcement • Experiential videos • Artist vlogs • Collaborative videos
Video & Channel Optimisations Video & Channel Optimisations Video & Channel Optimisations Video & Channel Optimisations
• Update channel branding • Update channel sections • Update channel branding • Update channel branding with release date to feature new content to reflect album release to reflect the event • Add release date and • Drive lyric video viewers • Update video description • Add event links to pre-order links to to official music video with and annotations to drive to annotations and descriptions annotations and annotation album playlist or purchase • Update channel sections descriptions • Begin playlisting videos with tour footage and • Enable In-Video interesting UGC Programming Google Confidential and Proprietary 6 Build Hype: MAXIMISING ASSETS & SAMPLERS
Electronic Music tracks have a long shelf life and listeners come back to them on repeat. Use your top tracks to generate interest in your upcoming releases and events. Create trailer, first listen, and sampler videos to build anticipation.
“YouTube is a key platform to get new tracks and videos out to our fans, via our /Armada Music, A State of Trance and Armin van Buuren channels. Combined with my radio shows and the live streaming of our events, it offers a valuable promotional platform for our labels and the artists on those labels.” - Armin van Buuren
Google Confidential and Proprietary 6 Build Hype: Ways To Do It
Leverage Top Tracks: On average Electronic Music tracks have very high view durations and maintain viewership over long periods of time. Leverage these tracks to promote upcoming events and new releases through InVideo programming, video and End Card annotations.
Produce Promotional Videos: Generate interest in upcoming events and releases by producing original promotional videos:
Teasers: Create teasers of upcoming events, track releases and publish immediately after they are announced to capitalize on organic search traffic.
Lineup Releases: Release lineup videos around upcoming events and festival artists.
Samplers: Create sampler videos for fans to get a taste of new albums.
First listens: Release videos for a limited duration on the channel to allow fans to be first listenersfrom the talent directly.
Google Confidential and Proprietary 7 Make It Discoverable: METADATA
Ensure that your audience can find and buy your music by optimising the metadata on and off YouTube.
Artist Channel Music Cards
Auto-generated Artist Channels that appear in search results (left) and Music Cards that drive viewers to purchase tracks from video descriptions (top) are two dynamic features that can be unlocked with well-kept metadata.
Google Confidential and Proprietary 7 Make It Discoverable: Ways To Do It
Optimize Video Metadata:
Titles: A majority of traffic comes from searches on artist and song terms. Ensure that these are present at the beginning of the title. Include specific descriptive terms such as Remix, Acapella and Live about the track at the end of the Title to set listener’s expectations.
Descriptions: Include the artist’s name and song titles in the top of the description with additional context about the track. Add additional links for subscription and to purchasing below the fold. Where applicable include information about the event, the album and song lyrics.
Uploads: Select music as a video category upon upload and fill out the metadata fields when enabling content ID.
Optimize Off Platform: Match YouTube metadata with the terms used on the following sites: Musicbrainz, Freebase, AllMusic, Songkick, Wikipedia.
Google Confidential and Proprietary 8 Program like a DJ: PLAYLISTS
Playlists drive huge amounts of views and watchtime in Electronic Music. Curate your fans’ session by organising your content into thematic playlists and encouraging them to keep watching.
/Ministry Of Sound creates playlists based on their events, releases and artists. They also create genre specific curated playlists featuring content from other channels and update them regularly. Their EM channel playlists frequently generate up to 15% of channel traffic.
Google Confidential and Proprietary 8 Program Like a DJ: Ways To Do It
• Create Themed Playlists: Playlists drive huge amounts of views and watchtime in Electronic Music. Create specific playlists around DJs, artist picks, albums and events to extend viewers’ watch sessions. Think editorially by keeping these up to date and creating new playlists for specific events.
• Curate Playlists: Create curated playlists that include videos from other channels.
• Push Engagement: Use annotations, calls to action and descriptions that link to the playlist in order to drive viewers into the playlist viewing mode.
Google Confidential and Proprietary 9 Extend the Life of Live: CLIPPING & PACKAGING
Clip full length sets, events and live performances into short-form videos and optimise their metadata to help your fans find and share them.
/Tomorrowland clips specific DJ sets from the full event “The aftermovie is our icon to spread the ‘once in a lifetime “Content on YouTube is our candy store where everyone experience’ all over the world.” - Tomorrowland can taste.” - Tomorrowland
Google Confidential and Proprietary 9 Extend the Life of Live: Ways To Do It
Clip for On Demand: Clip live event and uncut footage into specific artist, DJ and track videos. Create videos around specific moments that your fans can share.
Optimize Medata: Re-title and update the video description with specific searchable terms to increase channel discovery.
Include Navigational Annotations: Include annotations on the repackaged clips so that viewers can navigate to related content such as other tracks by the same DJ and back to the original long-form event.
Google Confidential and Proprietary 10 Develop Repeat Viewers: AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT
Turn your audience into repeat viewers by engaging with them on the channel and by giving them access to exclusive content.
/Above & Beyond hosted a G+ Hangout with their Top Fans. /Protocol Recordings created a music video based on fan submitted content and received 91K views.
Google Confidential and Proprietary Develop Repeat Viewers: 10 Develop Repeat Viewers: Ways To Do It AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT
Engage with your Fans: Give back to your fans by showing them that you are listening. Including shoutouts and responding to comments are a few ways to engage with them on the channel.
Producing Fan Content: Producing content around requests and creating videos about the fans (like with audiences at a concert) are also great ways to engage with listeners.
Exclusive Content: Releasing exclusive content such as artist Q&As, pre-releases to top fans and G+ hangouts with the artists onto the channel are effective ways to develop repeat viewers. Producing these content formats regularly develops audience expectations and gives them something to come back to.
Google Confidential and Proprietary 11 Expand Your Audience: ARTIST COLLABORATIONS
Recommendations and partnerships are key to music discovery on YouTube. Cross-promote and create YouTube specific collaboration events and tracks to raise your channel’s profile and attract new audiences.
/deadmau5 & /imogenheap hosted a Hangout where they /Steve Aoki participates in a variety of collaborations with on and off talk cats and their track Telemiscommunications, which platform talent including Cesar Milan and Epic Meal Time. was released on the same date.
Google Confidential and Proprietary 11 Expand Your Audience: Ways To Do It
Collaboration Videos: Collaboration videos are an effective tool to attract a new audience to the channel. Create original collaboration tracks with other artists on your YouTube channel to draw in new listeners. Ensure that the other artists push traffic to the collaboration video through annotations and social engagement.
Guest Playlists: Invite DJs and other tastemakers to curate specific playlists for the channel. If managing multiple channels, create specific playlists promoting your other artists and their top tracks.
Feature Channels: Feature other channels in your inventory and have other channels feature your channel to increase awareness and viewership.
Google Confidential and Proprietary 12 Tap into your Community: OFF PLATFORM PROMOTION
While your audience may be a fan of your music, they may not be aware of your channel. Promote your YouTube content off-platform to drive engagement on your channel.
/Tiësto promotes Season 2 of his YouTube series In The Booth across G+, Facebook, and Twitter with tracking links to monitor engagement which were embedded across the web.
Google Confidential and Proprietary Tap into your Community: 12 Tap into your Community: Ways To Do It OFF PLATFORM PROMOTION
Social Platform Promotion: Identify where your fans are engaged online. Make use of your social platforms to encourage engagement and direct traffic to the channel.
External Sites: Work with external sites, blogs and tastemakers to showcase the channel’s content. Create a blogroll that content is pushed to on a regular basis.
Leverage Talent: DJs and artists typically have large online followings. Have talent push content and promote it directly to their fans.
Google Confidential and Proprietary 13 Push Purchases: TICKETS & DOWNLOADS
Use your channel to push viewers to purchase your goods. Make use of strong calls to action and annotations to promote purchasing.
iTunes Store
Defected Records create interactive Album Samplers for each of their releases, in addition to pushing external merch annotations leading to buy on sites such as iTunes.
These videos create high engagement with average annotation click-through-rates of 15%.
Purchase Links
Google Confidential and Proprietary 13 Push Purchases: Ways To Do It
Offsite Annotations: When applicable include off-site annotations directing viewers to the organization’s website.
Merch Annotations: Include merch annotations directly on the videos to promote licensed merchandise on Play, Songkick and iTunes.
Promotional Videos: When programming teaser and samplers videos, include links to purchase tickets, tracks and albums directly.
Descriptions: Include additional links in the video description that promote sites where viewers can purchase merchandise.
Be mindful of driving viewers off-site and decreasing the channel watch-time.
Google Confidential and Proprietary Top Strategies for Electronic Music
Credits
Google Confidential and Proprietary Thanks!
Google Confidential and Proprietary