This post isn’t a “how-to” shoot a music video. I’m sure you can get all types of suggestions from Google on which direction to go if that’s what you are looking for. This post is how I shot MY music video, without a record label backing me and paying for it all out of my pockets (which are currently empty, except for the lint).

Since there are probably several things vying for your time, I will try to keep this as brief as possible, while still getting you the necessary info you need.

The song, the story

First, I had to choose the song on my album which was good enough to be considered a “single,” but more importantly to me, the song that had the best story that could be told with actions, images, and acting. I felt I chose a song that had a story that most people could relate to, as well as being “catchy.”

It’s people, people

Step number two was to pick my “team” with regard to turning these song lyrics and melodies into a visual medium. I’ve never made a music video, but I assumed I needed a director first, and that was the right move to make. A friend happened to be married to someone who makes movies for a living so that worked out well for me. You might have to do a google search.

She (my fearless director) helped me immensely with who I needed to choose next, the DOP (director of photography), as well as figuring out my budget and how the story line would play out. Together we mapped out the crew we would need (i.e. assistant director, assistant camera, lighting, key grip, production assistants, hair & makeup, etc.), selected locations to shoot in, and started to select cast members based on the story.

Dreaming first, then the details

We started story-boarding the lyrics into different scenes, while plugging in the locations and cast members (on paper). As we were doing this, we tried to guesstimate how many days we would need, as well as how much all of this was adding up to. Once we had an idea of what was necessary to make our “dream vision” come to life, we started to add up how much it would all cost. Then we started making decisions based on budget (i.e. eliminating the piro, and cutting everything else).

We figured we needed three days to shoot at all the locations. Proximity from location to location was considered when we needed to shoot in more than one location in one day. The longest day of shooting was all done in one location. We shot the scenes out of order, from most people needed to least people (scheduling all the people involved was probably one of the most challenging parts). 

We used three cameras (one drone, a Steadicam, and a stationary camera), and a follow focus (which controls the focus of the Steadicam). There were stage lights that were available to use at one of the locations and the other lights we used we got at Target, on sale.

Keeping costs down

Some of the locations required us to possess insurance (an unexpected cost that got added in). Any props we needed, we tried to find in our own apartments. Almost everyone who was cast, extra, or crew was a friend that was doing me a favor, so they participated for nothing or less than their quote (it probably helped that the main day of shooting was on my actual birthday. I think their participation was their gift to me haha). Asking time from people was one of my big considerations, as I knew their time was precious and I didn’t want to impose or take it for granted. In some cases, I bartered services. They participated in my video for nothing (or less than they deserved) and I did stuff for them for free (recordings, their videos, gigs, cooked BBQ, etc).

I covered the cost for all the craft services (meals, snacks, hot and cold drinks) and made sure we had plenty of breaks for those things to be consumed. It kept everyone happy when we would take time to set up the different scenes.

PRO TIP: Having “petty cash” on hand while you’re shooting is necessary in case you run into any last min snags or emergencies (same goes for gaffer tape and extension cords-aka stingers or whips)

Legal and logistics

Being transparent with information (especially schedule) is a must.

Have people sign release forms so you are legally protected.

The more time you spend in preparation; the less time it will take to execute in real time.

PRO TIP: Knowing everything will probably take three times longer than you want it to is a good mindset to have to keep everyone calm and in good spirits (plenty of snack and drink options are key!)

Executing and adapting (with drones!)

The most important part was that the lyrics were being portrayed in the acting. Also, we wanted to make sure the personality of the people involved came across (hopefully a lighthearted, comical theme came across as well as the courtship aspect). In a few cases, people we had cast as specific roles became unavailable. We had to come up with a “Plan B.” Since we were going for a comical vibe, it was decided that I was a re-occurring figure that made multiple cameos throughout the video.

There was one tricky part we didn’t expect. Those were the drone shots. Different cities and states have laws in place for drone use since 9-11. Some are restrictions on nighttime flying, residential vs. city flying, and more. Fortunately, my city and state don’t have any laws like that (for now) and I know a high ranking detective who told me if I had any issues the day of to call his cell. My drone operator was extremely nervous and cautious. We were flying in the middle of a busy downtown city, near powerlines, at night, a few blocks from the police station. Not to mention weather plays a huge deal with drones. You can’t fly with any precipitation and it has to be a non-windy day. If you have a slight breeze, it is multiplied dramatically the higher off the ground you go. There are websites to let you know if you can fly your drone that day, provided you need one for an outdoor shot.

Wrapping up

After we shot all the scenes, we had to edit them into the story we were trying to tell, and then pick the alternate “filler scenes” to stick into the action to keep your attention. Once all the scenes were in order, then we had to color correct everything and then add the beginning and ending credits.

Now, I’m sure you’re asking how I paid for it all? Even though I got the “Friend Discount,” I still had to spend money. I had saved up some money from merch sales on my own gigs. I also took every type of gig offered to me. I lit up my credit card (so much so, it’s glowing). I did eat a lot of peanut butter and jelly (and made a lot of meals at home). All said and done, this music video probably cost me less than $5,000. That still may be a lot for you, but there are many creative (and inexpensive) ways to make a video and I’m sure the internet can help you discover them.

I did have an extravagant vision for this video, and I knew I was only going to make this one. So when it came time to cut things to make the budget smaller, there were some things I couldn’t cut out if I wanted it to look a certain way. The other thing that helped was I spread the shoot days out over a longer period of time so I could save up more funds (whoring myself out) in between the selected shoot days.

Added bonus, here is a link to slang terms on a film set that sound sexual, and what they really mean: http://howtofilmschool.com/25-grip-lighting-terms-that-sound-sexual-what-they-really-mean/

The post How I shot my pro music video without a record label appeared first on DIY Musician Blog.

How to legally post a cover song video on YouTube.

Cover song videos are hugely popular on YouTube, and making a cover song video is one of the most proven ways to get new listeners and viewers to check out your other songs, including your original material.

So let’s say you’ve recorded an awesome new cover version of an existing song, and now it’s time to post the video to YouTube. What do you need to do in order to NOT get your pants sued off?

First, an important disclaimer: I’m not a lawyer. If you’re worried about legal issues, you should consult an attorney. That being said, CD Baby and our YouTube network Illustrated Sound manage a vast catalog of songs and videos on behalf of artists on YouTube, and we have lots of experience from which we draw upon to offer the general advice that follows.

So let’s start by understanding the various rights that do and don’t come into play when posting a cover song video.

Cover song videos are NOT protected by a mechanical license.

Once a song is published, you have the right to cover it (as a recording, but NOT as a video).

“Published” under the Copyright Act is defined as:

 …the distribution of copies or phonorecords of a work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending.  The offering to distribute copies or phonorecords to a group of persons for purposes of further distribution, public performance, or public display constitutes publication. A public performance or display of a work does not of itself constitute publication.

In order to distribute and sell your own version of that cover song, you have to secure what is know as a mechanical license from the publisher of the song, and pay them the appropriate mechanical royalties.

BUT… a mechanical license (often secured through an agency such as Harry Fox or CD Baby’s cover song licensing service) protects you ONLY for the distribution of a cover song sound recording, NOT the associated cover song video. So while you absolutely MUST acquire the necessary mechanical license for a cover song before you press CDs or sell downloads, that license is meaningless when it comes to the video you want to post on YouTube.

As entertainment attorney Christiane Cargill Kinney says:

Assuming that a single license is going to cover you for every usage of the song is kind of like assuming that your doctor will accept pet insurance to treat your laryngitis. You’re dealing with two (or more) completely different animals.

What license do you need for a cover song video?

Before I answer that question, I’m going to tell you a secret: Almost NO ONE that creates cover song videos is jumping through the hoops to secure the appropriate license before they post those videos to YouTube.

Are they getting sued? Are they having their videos smacked with a copyright violation notice or take-down request? Occasionally, yes. But by and large, no.

Why not? Well, YouTube has developed a monetization system to allows rights holders and content creators to bypass the usual licensing process for cover song videos. But before we get into that, let’s discuss the license you WOULD need to secure if you wanted to be sure your cover song video was published by-the-book, on the up-and-up, and totally legit and legal eagle.

You need… a sync license.

Some of the many rights granted to the publisher of a composition are:

• the right to decide who gets to “synchronize” that song with images
• the right to determine the circumstances under which the song is “synched”
• and the right to set terms for monetary compensation

Getting a sync license (or synch license) from the publisher of the song allows you to pair their composition with moving images in your cover song video.

Note that those same rights are granted to the owners of sound recordings too, but since you’re making your own version of an existing song, you won’t need to deal with whichever entity owns the master recording. You just need to negotiate with the publisher.

What if my cover song video is just a slideshow or a single still image? 

In the eyes of the law, that’s still considered a video — and still requires you to get a sync license.

“Negotiating” with the publisher. Good luck.

Since the publisher holds all the cards in this circumstance, they can ignore your sync license request. They can tell you to take a hike. They can say, sure you can post a cover video of our song, as long as you pay us a bazillion dollars.

Or they can be quite reasonable and grant you permission as long as you meet some set of realistic criteria and pay them the agreed upon upfront fee or ongoing royalty split (or both).

Sound like a lot of work? It does to most artists, especially YouTubers who are often creating a new cover song video every week. So that’s where this next licensing method comes in handy.

Content ID: YouTube’s sync-licensing workaround.

YouTube’s impressive Content ID system analyzes elements of every single video uploaded to the platform to determine if a video contains any copyrighted material (sound recordings, composition, video, etc.). If so, YouTube’s Content ID system automatically places a claim on that video on behalf of the rights holder.

In other words, if you upload a cover song video, YouTube should be able to tell that you do NOT own the rights to the song; you will see a claim placed on the video by the publisher, and any ad revenue generated by your video will be paid to that rights holder.

This is the same technology that allows CD Baby to monetize the usage of sound recordings across all of YouTube on behalf of our artists.

Where can I see if anyone has placed a Content ID claim on my cover song videos?

It’s pretty simple. Once you’ve posted the video to YouTube, go to the copyright notices section of your Video Manager.

If you see a claim, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re “in trouble.” As YouTube explains:

In most cases, getting a Content ID claim isn’t a bad thing for your YouTube channel. It just means, “Hey, we found some material in your video that’s owned by someone else.”

 

It’s up to copyright owners to decide whether or not others can reuse their original material. In many cases, copyright owners allow the use of their content in YouTube videos in exchange for putting ads on those videos.

 

These ads may play before or – if the video is longer than 10 minutes – during the video.

.

Let’s say the publisher does NOT want other artists posting cover videos of their song willy-nilly. What then?

Content ID gives publishers the ability to:

• Block videos — so people wont’ be able to search for or view your cover song video.
• Restrict viewing in certain territories/countries — so people in, say, Germany wouldn’t be able to view the video.
• Mute a video — so people would be able to watch the video, but no sound would play. Bummer!
• Block certain platforms — so people can only view the video on particular devices, apps, or websites.

While pretty damn magical, Content ID isn’t a perfect solution.

It’s true, you COULD STILL get slapped down or sued by the publisher. But that is very rare these days. Most publishers understand that monetizing cover song videos through YouTube ads can add up to real revenue. Better to be making some money (with little to no effort of their own) from artists who are excited about sharing their songs than having to spend time and cash combating cover song videos that weren’t licensed through the official sync channels.

Now, if a publisher is claiming your video and taking SOME or ALL of the revenue generated by the YouTube ads, how can you make money from your cover song video efforts?

Here’s a few ways to generate income:

• Sell the cover song on CD, vinyl, or download and direct your YouTube viewers (through Cards, End Screens, or direct call-to-action) to purchase the track. If you do this, make sure you’ve gotten a mechanical license to sell the cover song!
• Distribute the song to streaming platforms like Apple Music, Spotify, Pandora Premium, and more — and ask your YouTube subscribers to add the track to their streaming playlists.
• Use Patreon and encourage your fans to support you monetarily every time you post a new video.

Hopefully this article helps you choose the right path for you when it comes to posting cover song videos on YouTube. I’d love to see some of your best cover song videos, so please leave a YouTube link in the comments below.

And don’t forget to check out Illustrated Sound, the YouTube network powered by CD Baby. We can help you take your YouTube channel to the next level!

The post Posting Cover Songs on YouTube: Music Video Licensing Explained appeared first on DIY Musician Blog.

Make videos that keep viewers watching on YouTube.

If you want your videos to be recommended as much as possible to new viewers on YouTube, you need to appease the platform’s promotional algorithm.

YouTube’s primary objective — obviously — is to get viewers to stick around as long as possible so they can sell more advertising, so years back YouTube shifted its focus away from recommending videos with high view or thumbs up counts (because those stats can be easily gamed) and started favoring videos that encourage “watch time,” a more reliable metric for gauging real engagement.

In a recent post for Tubefilter, Matt Gielen shared some of the takeaways from his research into YouTube’s algorithm, including the following:

• Videos between 7-16 minutes in length perform up to 50% better than shorter or longer videos.
• Videos that get the most views have an average watch time of 5-8 minutes.
• No correlation was found between view count and length of title or description, or number of tags.
• A strong correlation was found between the number of tags and the number of creator suggested videos in that creator’s suggested video column.

Take YOUR YouTube efforts to the next level with Illustrated Sound, the YouTube network powered by CD Baby.

The post What does YouTube’s algorithm care about most? Increase watch time, increase your views appeared first on DIY Musician Blog.

CD Baby wants to go steady.

YouTube acts in accordance with international laws surrounding intellectual property and digital distribution, but enforcing digital rights on the platform comes with its own set of intricacies that must be navigated properly.

Today we’ll be addressing the issue of exclusivity.

The term “exclusive” has a special significance in the worlds of music and rights management. It means you’re giving one and ONLY ONE entity the right to work on behalf of your music in a particular arena (such as sync licensing, YouTube monetization, physical distribution, etc.)

There are two types of exclusivity: Exclusive and Non-exclusive.

The meaning of these terms is fairly obvious:

• Exclusive rights are, well, exclusively owned by whoever has the license.
• Non-Exclusive rights grant limited usage-based rights (personal use, commercial use, # of plays, etc.).

Though the concepts discussed below will be applicable to most asset types on YouTube, for this conversation I am referring to Sound Recording assets.

Two taskrabbits meet at the baggage claim…

Let’s say you have a bag you’re waiting to claim at the airport. You’re waiting and waiting but apparently it’s going to be delayed, and you’ve gotta go. You have places to be and people to see.

So, you whip out your handy pocket computer and hire a taskrabbit to come to the airport and wait for your bag. Their job is simple: Collect your bag when it arrives and deliver it safely to you. This bag has valuable stuff in it and you don’t want to take any chances, so you hire a second taskrabbit just to be sure the bag gets picked up.

Both your taskrabbits are reputable and responsible and wait patiently as the buzzer signals the baggage has arrived. With their shins pressed against the smooth railing below the carousel, they watch intently for your bag to slide into view. And there it is, slowly approaching the safe embrace of your hired hands. It comes within reach and both rabbits take hold.

Congratulations, your bag is safe! But there’s one hang-up: Neither taskrabbit is willing to relinquish the bag to the other. They were both charged with the task of collecting the bag and neither is willing to concede. On top of that, the airport officials aren’t going to let the bag leave the building until it’s clear who really owns it. Looks like your bag will be delayed.

With YouTube monetization, two is NOT better than one

Please excuse my foray into creative writing, but I wanted to illustrate the issue at hand. When it comes to administering assets on YouTube, no two administrators can claim ownership of the same asset in the same territory. Even when assets are called something different, if they share identical (or similar) reference files, there can be only one ownership claim per territory.

It’s a common assumption that signing up with two administration companies will mean twice the results, but it will only tie up your revenue in escrow while YouTube determines who really has the exclusive administration rights to the intellectual property in question.

So, do your research, find a company you like, and stick with them. I hear CD Baby is pretty good at this YouTube administration stuff… I’m just saying.

The post YouTube monetization and you: “Can we be exclusive?” appeared first on DIY Musician Blog.

YouTube Subscribes Maketh YouTube Channels.

As we may have mentioned before, the best way to make the most of your YouTube presence is to put in the work. Time and effort, my friends — that’s the key!

It’s hard to put in work if you don’t know where to direct that effort though, so where does one start?

The first thing every channel owner should do is try to fully understand their presence on YouTube. So, that means learning everything you can about your channel, including:

• the video count
• average views
• demographics
• earnings
• ad types
• and more

But one of the most important details to know about your channel, as well as the most effective ways to guarantee consistent viewership, is subscribers.

Why is it so important to understand your subscribers?

Being the responsible channel owner that you are, I’m sure you have that subscriber number burned into your brain. But, where did your subscribers come from? Was it your artistic framing of Bucky The Cat cleansing his unmentionables? Or the gripping visual tale of grandma falling asleep over her french onion soup? And how did those particular subscribes make it to your page in the first place? What were they perusing that ultimately lead them to YOUR collection of brilliant videos? Knowing this will allow you to tailor your channel to your most active demographic and, hopefully, garner more subscribers than ever.

Enter the Subscriber’s Report.

You’ll be relieved to hear that YouTube has just released a new feature under Interaction Reports that will allow you to become an expert on your subscribers.  Check out the YouTube posting for all the details.

Learn your channel, know your channel, love your channel —because if you don’t, who will*?

*Well, actually, we will. Get help optimizing, monetizing, and managing your channel with CD Baby’s Illustrated Sound Network.

The post The most important thing you need to know about your YouTube channel, and where to find it appeared first on DIY Musician Blog.

You’re reading this article because you’re an artist on YouTube, right? Well that’s good to hear! Because I’m going to tell you about something you should really be taking advantage of: YouTube For Artists.

YouTube wants you to be successful. Like, REALLY. And that doesn’t come from some beautiful, altruistic soft spot that YouTube has for its creators [Note: I’m not saying that soft spot doesn’t exist; it’s just that, you know, they’re a business]. The fact is, it benefits YouTube financially and as a brand when you succeed.

“So, what does this mean?”

I’m glad you asked. This means that YouTube provides creators with all sorts of tools and helpful advice to make them the best YouTubers they can be.

YouTube for Artists specifically caters to the YouTube musician.

It became apparent to us after the recent DIY Musician Conference that many of the artists attending were unaware of the YouTube Artist Hub (aka YouTube for Artists). It’s too good of a tool for it to go unnoticed, so here’s a quick intro:

1. Keep your thumb on the YouTube pulse

Firstly, it gives you a temperature gauge of the YT music scene with its real-time music charts. Which is a great place to watch your inevitable meteoric rise, let me tell ya.

2. Improve your YouTube promotion

It also gives insight into how to grow on YouTube as an artist and keeps you abreast of all the hip happenings in the music realm with frequently updated blog posts.

3. Get schooled (in a good way)

Finally, it surfaces useful learning opportunities for musicians on YouTube via one of our favorite YouTube features: The Creator Academy.

So take a second to peruse artists.youtube.com. After all, it was made just for you.

Take your channel to the next level with Illustrated Sound, the YouTube network powered by CD Baby.

The post 3 reasons you need to be using YouTube’s Artist Hub appeared first on DIY Musician Blog.

Artists, are you ready for what comes your way?

[This article was written by indie hip-hop artist Gospel Lee.]

A few weeks ago, I had the amazing opportunity to have my music video filmed by YouTube at their Nashville pop-up studio. It was an incredibly fantastic experience collaborating with such wonderfully talented, innovative individuals. The creative energy was electric and contagious, allowing us to play off of each others’ ideas, which resulted in a music video that I’m immensely proud of.

I used to think that opportunities like this are bestowed by chance or luck, or that they go to those with the most talent or the biggest budget/financial backing. But now I understand that luck is often a product of the lazy person’s mental gymnastics to substitute the reality of hard work. I’m not the most talented rapper that exists, and I’ve got a baby shoestring budget to work with, but looking back at some of the highlights of my musical career (Charting on multiple Billboard charts, opening for multiple GRAMMY award winning artists, getting accepted for NACA college showcases), I noticed 3 elements that I’ve consistently employed.

These elements are not a formula that will result in landing every amazing opportunity every time, but they’re three ingredients that will allow more good opportunities to gravitate your way while also putting you in a better position to take advantage of them.

The 3 ingredients behind my collab with YouTube:

1. The Willingness To Learn

There are artists I know that are insanely talented. They practice every day devoting hours to developing their craft. I ask them how much time they spend working on the business side and they either have no idea about it, or reject the idea altogether in the name of wanting to “just focus on the music.”

Your career will only go as far as your willingness to learn music business. Learning the music business is as simple as finding, learning from, and listening to the experts — and then implementing their advice. One resource that curates these experts on a regular basis is CD Baby’s DIY Musician Podcast. Their podcast library contains dozens of interviews with experts that have been really influential to my career.

CD Baby also holds an annual conference featuring many leading industry experts. A few experts that come to mind who have been on the podcast and attended the conference are performance coach Tom Jackson and industry expert, blogger, and best-selling author Ari Herstand.

Implementing Tom’s advice on live performance has had a significant impact on my merch sales at shows (which account for half of my total revenue) and Ari’s advice has been directly responsible for me signing with a college booking agent, playing colleges, and doing NACA showcases. I have been an avid listener to the podcast for a couple of years now, and it was on the podcast that I learned that YouTube was accepting submissions to make a music video for select artists attending the CD Baby conference in Nashville.

2. The Willingness to Invest

One of my favorite sayings is “the greatest investment you can make is in yourself.”

This is especially true for your music career. No one will care about your career more than you, nor should they. If you aren’t willing to invest in your music career, why would/should anyone else?

The biggest commodities when it comes to investment is time & money. Usually if you have a lot of one, you don’t have much of the other, but you do need a little of both. The takeaway here is that often a willingness to learn requires an investment of time and/or money. Also an investment of time/money is required to execute on the knowledge that you gain. Tom Jackson’s book on stage performance cost me $100 (the most I’ve ever paid for a book) and it is 400+ pages long, but paying for and taking the time to read it has had a significant impact on my merch sales at shows (which, as I said above, account for half of my total revenue), and the money I made on merch at one show has covered the cost of the book four times over.

Ari Herstand hosted a 4-hour webinar on how to break into the college market that cost me $200, but after taking it I signed with one of the top college agents in the market generating income from college shows that was five times my initial investment and securing multiple NACA showcases.

I invested a weekend on my life and spent $800 dollars to attend the CD Baby DIY Musician Conference in 2016 (tickets, airfare, Uber, Airbnb, meals, subway passes, etc), but that is where I saw Tom Jackson do his “live band makeover” and was convinced buying his book and DVD bundle would take me to the next level. At the same conference I met Ari Herstand on the street and offered to review his upcoming book. He accepted and has been a really amazing mentor ever since. This year it cost about $600 dollars to attend the DIY Musician Conference (get those early-bird tickets when you can) and we paid extra for our Airbnb to be there a day early, but that early day was the day YouTube was requiring artists to be there to film videos. Many artists see the value in making an investment for new gear, but fail to see that value when it comes to making investments in career developing/advancing opportunities.

3. The Willingness To Be Prepared

The willingness to learn about awesome opportunities and invest time or money in pursuing them means nothing if you aren’t prepared to seize the opportunity once it’s in front of you. Depending on your goals, you should have some or all of the following things ready to go:

• an elevator pitch
• one-sheet/press kit
• quality hi-res photos
• a good live video
• streaming links
• instrumental and a cappella versions of your songs
• publishing and copyright paperwork (splits/royalty info/copyright registration/PRO affiliation)
• website with booking information
• a social presence

Making all of these assets readily accessible takes work, but artists who have a willingness to be prepared will do the work to get it done.

When I got the final cut of the video back from YouTube, there was an issue with the audio track. It was so easy to send them another version of the song because I had it in a folder in my Dropbox account. I recently got asked for my one-sheet because a major artist was going on tour and was looking for openers. It took 3 minutes to send him a one-sheet that was already in my sent folder.   There are so many artists to choose from, that if your moment comes and you aren’t ready, whoever is extending the offer will likely move on to someone else.

Talent matters. The songs matter, but a lot of the crazy career-building opportunities don’t go to the most talented, or the best songwriters, but the hardest workers. I’ve accepted that I may not be either of the first two, but I can be the hardest working. A lot of talk is made about hard work, but it’s seldom broken down into what that entails when it comes to a music career. Being willing to learn, invest, and be prepared are practical and tangible things that I’ve done which have positioned me to take advantage of some wonderful opportunities.

Below is the video that YouTube shot & directed for us (myself and my team), and which premiered last week on the underground hip-hop blog Str8outDaDen. I hope that as you watch it you’ll realize that if it can happen to me, it can happen for you. Keep working, indie comrades!

The post The 3 things you need in order to seize upon a music opportunity appeared first on DIY Musician Blog.

Rob Flax makes the most of an opportunity.

Multi-instrumentalist and performing songwriter Rob Flax had his suspicions confirmed at the DIY Musician Conference: A combination of eagerness and preparation is the key to success in today’s music industry.

Talent is only a part of the equation, though Rob’s got that part locked in tight, as you can hear when you watch the video he shot with the help of #YouTubeNashville as part of the DIY Musician Conference.

Say YES to everything.

Below Rob Flax talks about his experience at the 2017 DIY Musician Conference in Nashville, shooting a video with YouTube, playing multiple times during the event, and more:

I loved every minute of CD Baby’s DIY Musician Conference and I would recommend this event to any artist in a similar stage in their career: Finally ready with a product, but not sure how to sell it.

Each and every session was chock-full of DIY nuggets, with practical “do this now” advice in almost every area of my business. (This is another good way to decide whether or not this conference is for you: if you’ve just started to call this “your business” instead of just “your art,” then you should go. Buy the early-bird tickets as soon as they’re up. I’m probably going again.)

And then… the extras! The YouTube Nashville Sessions were an inspiring first for me—first time I’ve shot a music video with seven cameras rolling at once. I had rolled into Nashville on a 6am bus that morning from Atlanta, spent ten hours in a recording studio working with a new engineer, and then headed to the YouTube space for a 10 pm shoot. I thought I had a long day, but the film crew had been there since 8 am, working nonstop, and had four straight days at that pace!

The lesson to be learned here: always be humble, because there are so many people grinding just as hard (or harder). How inspiring to collaborate with such hardworking folks who did such an amazing job!

A big takeaway from the conference: say yes to everything. Apply to everything. I got the opportunity to shoot this video because I attended the conference and then applied to participate (the form was only available to conference attendees, and not advertised as a reason to go).

I played at the open mic Friday night because I applied (another attendee-only opportunity). I played again at the after-party Sunday night because I stuck around, and my name got pulled, and I was ready to play as soon as my name was called (instrument in hand, song memorized and prepared).

Each and every performance opportunity came from a combination of eagerness to share my music and the preparation to be ready when a chance arose. I’m learning more and more that this is how the music business works, all of the time. Thank you, CD Baby, for pushing me to be ready.

To learn more about Rob Flax, visit his website.

For more information about the DIY Musician Conference, go HERE. (More information about the 2018 conference coming soon).

The post “This is how the music business works, all the time” appeared first on DIY Musician Blog.

Prep for the holidays on YouTube; reap the benefits year-round!

Aunt Sue is wondering whether she really wants to buy you that album you asked for this Christmas, the one by Sexy Demonic Wombats from Beyond the Gates of Oblivion (“SDWBGO” for short).

If she’s like most people with Internet access, she’ll turn to YouTube for a minute or two of “research” first.

Much to her surprise and relief, Demonic Wombats is a mostly harmless polka band that performs 1970’s prog-rock covers — so you’re all set. She orders the CD and everyone (Aunt Sue, you, the Wombats) is happy come Christmastime.

This is just one of countless examples of how people use YouTube these days. The video streaming giant is now the world’s jukebox, a customizable replacement for both MTV and radio, a deep musical archive, the #1 search engine for music, the #1 music discovery tool online, and much more — all available on your smartphone.

So it’s hardly surprising that artists are now earning so much in YouTube ad revenue. CD Baby pays hundreds of thousands of dollars a month to indie musicians for the usage of their music on YouTube — and the holidays also happen to coincide (not… coincidentally, of course) with a huge spike in YouTube advertising revenue.

One interesting and encouraging thing about the amount of revenue artists generate on YouTube is that people who’ve monetized their music are actually earning more from fan-created videos (also known as “user-generated content,” or U.G.C.) than from the official music videos they’ve uploaded to YouTube themselves.

[Check out our podcast interview with Josh Collum to hear an example of how one artist earned more than $200k from user-generated content.]

As I’ve said in previous articles, the modern music industry is built on a social economy. What your fans do (and want to do) with your music has real value.

No, you’re not going to earn nearly as much per usage as you might if the same song were licensed for a Coke commercial. Instead, with YouTube, it’s all about VOLUME and time (since the videos that use your music will be up on YouTube for quite a while) — and as our monthly YouTube payouts demonstrate, when your fan community is empowered to take social action with your music, you make money.

Here are 6 tips to help you make more money from your music on YouTube (this holiday season and beyond)

Making money from your music on YouTube isn’t just a holiday thing, but this busy music season is a perfect time to make sure you’re doing all you can to take advantage of this increasingly important revenue stream.

1. Sign up your entire back catalog for CD Baby’s YouTube Monetization program

The obvious early step to earning money from your music on YouTube… is getting set up to earn money from your music on YouTube!

In the digital age, your music doesn’t have a shelf life — and you never know when one of your songs will find its audience. So sign up ALL your songs, old and new.

2. Encourage your fans to create user-generated content

It’s the holidays! One of your songs might be the perfect soundtrack to someone’s ugly-sweater video Christmas card, or as the background music to a classic home movie of kids unwrapping presents around the tree.

Here are a couplr ways to get people to use your music:

• Email your fans and let them know they’re free to use your songs for their holiday videos, wedding videos, family reunion videos, company or school projects, vacation slideshows, etc. Your songs are already in heavy rotation in these peoples’ households; might as well be in their crazy cat videos, too! If one of them goes viral, you’ll make even more money.
• Host a video contest where you ask your fans to create music videos for their favorite of your songs. Whether its footage of a dance party, a stop-motion animation, or a bunch of kids lip syncing, these kinds of videos can add up to serious ad revenue from YouTube. Plus, you’ll get to share your favorite of these entries through your website, newsletter, and social.

3. Put your most important links at the top of your video descriptions

For any videos you upload to your own channel, be sure to include the URL to your website or preferred music store right at the top of the description. You want viewers to be able to click through without having to scroll down or hit the “show more” button. Don’t make people search.

The post 6 ways to earn more money from your music on YouTube this Holiday Season appeared first on DIY Musician Blog.

Want to make the most of your music on YouTube?

YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world, one of the most powerful music discovery tools in human history, and the first place many talent buyers, festival bookers, and other industry professionals will look when they’re considering your music for an opportunity.

In other words, YouTube is really really really important when it comes to getting your music out there. That’s why we put together this free guide to help you build a smart foundation for your music on the hugely popular video platform.

The 30-Minute YouTube Bootcamp for Musicians will serve as a quick primer to help you:

• Optimize your channel and videos
• Build your following on YouTube
• Increase video engagement
• Better understand YouTube revenue streams
• Create more compelling video content without going broke

Grab your free copy HERE and start on your path to becoming a YouTube master.

The post The 30-Minute YouTube Bootcamp for Musicians appeared first on DIY Musician Blog.

How to make a lyric video for your song (without using Motion or After Effects)

Lyric video: a video that shows your song lyrics while the music plays. [Pretty self-explanatory.]

Not only are lyric videos a great and manageable way to keep your video content coming in between bigger projects that involve more complicated production, but I’ve found they can actually be a lot of fun to make.

Below I’m going to talk about how I created six different lyric videos along with info on some of the FREE tools I used.

A few things to keep in mind:

• I’m not a video guy. Every time I make one of my own lyric videos it’s a process of trial and error. A pro could probably create something twice as good in half the time, but I enjoy playing around to find solutions on my own. Plus, video budget? (Pshaw).
• You can make really cool lyric videos with programs like Motion and After Effects. I didn’t. For one, those programs cost money (see pshaw above). But diving into one of those programs would mean I have yet another learning curve to climb. I’m interested in exploring Motion at some point, but in between family, work, and everything else, I’d rather use what time is leftover to make music and bang out some videos, not hunker down in the lab for days on end. Maybe those programs are easier to use than I’m imagining, and I’m missing out (let me know in the comments), but for the sake of this article, let’s just refer back to the zero-budget appeal of making lyric videos WITHOUT Motion or After Effects.
• That leaves you with free video editing software like iMovie or Windows Movie Maker. Pros might scoff at these intro-level video production tools, but when you combine them with a few other tricks, plus some creativity, I think you can create compelling lyric videos with little more than what comes loaded on most desktops, tablets, or smartphones. [Full disclosure: I used Final Cut Pro X on three out of the four videos below, but I’d worked in iMovie for long enough before that to know most of the things I’m doing in FCPX can be done in iMovie.]

Beginner tips for making lyric videos

1. Open your movie-making software and set your new project’s aspect ratio to 16:9.
2. Import your song and any other media (like video clips, still images, logos, etc.) that you plan to use.
3. Move your first clip or background image to the project pane. If you plan to use one static background image the whole time, you can click and drag to adjust the duration that it appears so it’s long enough to display during your whole song.
4. Place your song into the project pane. If you want it to start playing right away, drag it all the way to the left. If you have a title page or some other introductory elements, you can leave a little room before the song starts.
5. Use “titles” to place the lyrics on the video at the appropriate time during the song, matching with the vocals.
6. Use a font size and style that’s readable (or that looks cool at the very least).
7. Position your titles on the video (again, by dragging) so they appear in a place that’s legible. For instance, if you’re using a still image of a sandy beach below a light gray sky, you don’t want white font to appear over that sky. Better to drag it down so it appears with starker contrast over the dark sand.
8. Make adjustments to the length of the titles (you can do this by clicking and dragging) to smooth out the transition from line to line.
9. Watch your whole video a few times through and make any needed fixes.
10. Export your video file and upload it to YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, etc.

Some tricks to spice up your lyric videos

This is the lyric video to my song “Irretrievable Beauty.” To create it I followed all the basic steps mentioned above, but here are a few of the bonus elements I added for (hopefully) extra impact:

• Additional text — No one ever said a lyric video should contain ONLY your lyrics. So I wrote a bunch of other text (a letter from the 22nd-Century) and placed my lyrics within it. Check out the video and what I’m describing will make more sense.
• Color contrast of text — The actual lyrics of the song needed to be easily readable, so they’re all in black against a lighter background. The rest of the words are white, and it’s fine if they roll by without anyone being able to read them all. I intended to create the feeling of being flooded by text, so lots of it is supposed to wash over you.
• Public domain image — I found a super hi-res image from 1905 to use for the background of the video (and my cover artwork too), and slowly zoomed in throughout the whole video.

Above is the lyric video for my song “1+1+1=3.” Some of the things I did to make this video:

• Slow fade between different versions of the same photo — The background image for this video is the same as the cover artwork, a photo I took of arithmetic on a chalkboard. I then applied different filters to the photo to create three separate versions. While editing the video, I started by laying the three images out in a repeating pattern and then cross fading them all so it looks like there’s some kind of slow transformation happening.
• More extra text — The additional text in this video is nowhere near as crazy as in “Irretrievable Beauty,” but I wanted to add a few bits here and there. You’ll spot ’em.
• Directly reference the subject matter — The song is called “1+1+1=3.” Yes, it’s about love, but the math element was a fun visual reference point. Arithmetic on a chalkboard. Strange equations in the text. Etc. What’s the visual reference in your song?

Above is the lyric video for my song “Silently.” Some things I did to create this one:

• Hyperlapse sunset — One afternoon when I was visiting Oregon, I ran up to the top of Mt. Tabor (an extinct volcano in the heart of Southeast Portland) and found a good spot to film the changing sky as dusk fell. I made sure to be out of the way of anyone who might walk in front of the camera and ruin the looooooong time-lapse shot. Hyperlapse is a free app from Instagram, and it makes it easy to shoot long videos and then speed them up at various rates. I think my 4-minute music video required about 45 minutes of footage.
• Intro titles from Word Swag — If you read this blog frequently, you probably know I love Word Swag, a free app that lets you add cool fonts to images. I used Word Swag to create both the circle logo at the beginning with my name in it, and also the “Silently” title. You could use this app to create text for every single lyric, but that’d get time consuming so I just ended up using it for those two elements at the beginning. For this purpose, within Word Swag you’ll usually want to lay the font over a transparent background so you can fly it into whatever video you’re creating without disrupting the moving footage. [Note: I used Word Swag to create the intro text for all the lyric videos below.]
• Sketch effect — I then added some built-in effects, including a color saturation effect and two doses of a sketch illustration effect, to make the video look grainy and lo-fi. Like I said above, this wasn’t premeditated. Just playing around with effects to see what looked promising. On that note…
• Earthquake wobble effect — I used the earthquake effect because I thought it kind of made the text look like it was on a transparent slide overlay that was out of focus for a second.
• Alternating pacing of lyric appearances — Sometimes the lyrics appear and disappear with the vocal. Sometimes certain lines linger. I just went by feel, and payed more attention to how the titles looked laid out across the screen than anything particularly musical.
• Alternating the color of the text — This is another obvious way to add some variation if you feel like your lyric video is too much of the same thing: change the colors of the lyrics!

Here’s a video for a song called “Morning Edition” which I posted right before the election in 2016. The recording is actually just a super lo-fi Garageband demo, but I only had two weeks until election day, and I figured if I’m going to make some kind of statement, there’s no time to wait to get my band into a proper studio. So, a few notes about this lyric video:

• A lyric video can still have live action — I’ve never really liked the distinction between “music video” and “lyric video,” as if one is more legit and exciting than the other. As someone who listens to lyrics just as much as the music, I love good lyric videos, and I think there can be an interesting hybrid between these two approaches. For “Morning Edition” I lip-synced to my song, 10 seconds at a time, while using the Face-Swap tool in Snapchat to graft a certain someone’s mug onto mine. Then I edited all those takes together and applied a sharp contrast filter to blend the background of the Snapchat clips with the large black borders on both sides of the clips.
• Did I say the lyrics have to be legible? — Well sure, it’s good to have legible lyrics, but I don’t think they need to be HUGE if that means you’re ruining the aesthetic of the video. For this one I figured I’d keep the text in a thin minimalist font at the top of the screen, out of the way of my face, and anyone who really wanted to read along could watch the video in full-screen mode.

Here’s the lyric video for my song “Veterans Day.” By complete accident — again, lots of playing around with built-in options — it ended up with a kind of Zen art aesthetic. Here’s how:

• Stock video — I looked through tons of stock video sites to find an affordable, hi-res clip that could be used as the background for the whole video. I ended up buying (for less than $10) a short video of milk being poured into a clear glass of water with a black background. But 6 seconds of video wasn’t going to cut it for a 5 minute song, so I…
• Slowed the clip WAY down — I stretched the clip as long as it could go and still only had about 2.5 minutes’ worth. So then I…
• Reversed the clip — By duplicating the clip I had 2.5 minutes of forward motion, and 2.5 minutes of backwards motion. So the result is like a palindrome, or like that famous bass solo on “Call Me Al.” Halfway through, the whole thing turns around and the milk goes back into the bottle by the end. Another accident that I ended up enjoying.
• Color inversion — I used the built-in tools to invert the colors so the white milk became like black ink, and the black background turned to a light gray.
• B&W — I then took that video and turned it to black and white, which ended up darkening the whole thing in a nice way.
• Scrolling text — One of the built-in title options on many video software programs allows you to scroll text vertically, like the end credits of a film. I used this effect separately for each verse and chorus of the song. Then I did another layer of scrolling text with just a bunch of randomly spaced letters and symbols, with a high transparency on the font so it appears as a graphic element, and I think it gives the whole video a kind a translucent papery feel.

Here’s a few things you might be able to learn from the lyric video to my song “Premiere:”

• Still photos are your friend — Check out royalty-free photo sites such as Unsplash. I made the entire video for “Premiere” using photos I found on that site. The one risk you run is that other artists use the same photos in their work, but you can always tweak the images so they’re barely recognizable as I did with the milk video in “Veterans Day.”
• Don’t be afraid of Ken Burns — He has a built-in video effect named after him for a reason; that technique of zooming in and out on still photos can be really effective for creating mood. Dynamics! Don’t go crazy or anything with the motion, but a little Ken Burns here and there can make flat photos come to life.
• Mix and match fonts — I used a bunch of different kinds of fonts on “Premiere,” giving each section of the song its own feel.
• Apply effects and transitions to the titles (text) too — Don’t forget that many of the same effects you can use on pictures and video will work to give your lyrics an interesting look as well.
• Don’t publish your video until you’ve proofread it a dozen times! — If you watched my lyric video for “Premiere” you might’ve found a typo. Whoops. I didn’t catch it until it’d been posted for over a week, and by then… oh well. Staring at text while you’re editing gets tiring. Your brain tricks you. While you’re in the process of creating, you might not catch something that seems glaringly incorrect later on. So get some bandmates and friends to watch the video a few times to make sure you don’t have any spelling or grammar issues on your lyrics (I mean, besides the usual grammar or syntactical issues that ALL lyrics have). Another way to limit errors is to…
• Write your lyrics out in Word and then paste them into your titles — When you type your lyrics in Word first, you get the benefit of the program’s spellcheck system. Some of the popular video editing software doesn’t have spellcheck, so paste those lyrics in after you’ve vetted them in the external doc.

Okay, those are some of the tricks I’ve used to make my lyric videos more interesting than just white font on a black background, all without paying for extra software or expensive stock footage and images. Hopefully they’re helpful as you create your next video.

Do you have any advice to add? I’d love to hear it. Holler in the comments below and be sure to post a link to your best lyric videos on YouTube!

The post Creating a good lyric video for less than $10 appeared first on DIY Musician Blog.

You may have heard that YouTube will soon be tightening its Partner Program guidelines for monetizing videos. This news might’ve scared or frustrated you. I’m going to try to put those fears and frustrations to rest.

First, what’s changing about YouTube’s monetization rules?

As of February 20th, channels included in the Partner Program must have:

• 1,000+ subscribers
• 4,000+ hours of watch-time within the last 12 months

If you meet these requirements, nothing to worry about! If your channel doesn’t meet these new criteria you will no longer be allowed to directly monetize the videos you’ve uploaded to your channel.

Why is YouTube changing the rules?

In short, it’s to ensure the long-term viability of YouTube as an advertising platform.

If a Coke commercial gets queued to play before some weird video that has nothing to do with Coke’s target audience, just because the person who uploaded that video added the right keywords to game the system, well, Coke is throwing its money away.

And worse, if a Coke commercial plays before some video with hate speech, controversial content, or violence, their reputation takes a hit.

Neither of those scenarios are acceptable to advertisers; but that’s exactly what was happening last year. It understandably scared advertisers away and YouTube took a big financial hit.

Now YouTube is making corrections. These new channel-monetization guidelines are one part of their stricter quality-assurance strategy,  providing more protection for advertisers. When the advertisers are happy, YouTube is happy; when YouTube is happy, the better the chances that YouTube will remain a viable venue to share, promote, and monetize your music.

But didn’t they just make it HARDER for me to monetize my music?

Well, kinda. But if you have less than 4000 hours of watch-time over the last year for the videos you’ve uploaded directly to your channel, you’re really not losing out on much money to begin with. Smarter people can do the math, but it really amounts to about a nice dinner out… for one.

Instead of fretting over peanuts, it’s probably a more worthwhile use of your time to boost your video output and subscriber count.

If you use YouTube as it was intended (as a content channel with engaged subscribers, and not just a place to park your music and promo videos), you can follow the steps outlined in YouTube’s Creator Academy to reach those minimum requirements — and beyond. Then you’ll be able to collect those peanuts AND earn more than just peanuts because your audience is finally growing and energized on the platform.

CD Baby is still monetizing your music on YouTube via Content ID

Another reason you don’t need to worry about these changes (at least not as much as you might’ve thought): If you’re monetizing your music through CD Baby’s YouTube Monetization program, we’re still continuing to collect revenue for as much of your original content as possible via Content ID.

You still have time to reach YouTube’s minimum requirements before these changes are implemented

To some degree, YouTube payments aren’t passive income. It takes WORK to build an audience. It takes WORK to keep that audience. And regardless of your channels current numbers, every single channel on YouTube can benefit from a little extra focused attention.

One of our favorite (and free) ways to give your channel some extra care is with Show.co.

Show.co is a suite of tools that make it easy to create effective online marketing campaigns, and as a CD Baby client it’s free to use. You can quickly design and implement campaigns that will drive traffic to your channel, boost video views, and help you reach YouTube’s new Partner Program requirements.

To get started with Show.co, log into your CD Baby dashboard and click “Free Marketing Tools.”

See if you can reach those requirements by February 20th!

The post Why YouTube’s channel-monetization changes won’t affect you… MUCH appeared first on DIY Musician Blog.

The no-no of not knowing.

Everyone gets a little boost from feeling like their channel is doing well, but what are your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs, for short)?

Chances are, the main metrics you’re measuring for success are views and subscribers — and you wouldn’t be wrong.  But what exactly goes into a “view?”

And what aren’t you looking at that could inform how you grow your channel?

YouTube views are the OBVIOUS starter metric

Views are the most basic metric to measure channel success. If a user finds you video and watches it, you get a view. So, the more views you get, the more advertisers will pay to place their ads on that video, the more valuable your videos become.

It’s a good idea to regularly check the view-count for all your videos.

Ask yourself these questions:

• Do all your videos get similar views?
• Do they vary wildly from post to post?
• What is the most valuable time period for views after you post a video?

Understanding your view counts (and the audience behavior that affect them) can reveal opportunities for more targeted work on your part and can, in turn, lead to more views overall.

Playback and Retention

The most logical thing to do after counting views is to dig deeper into how those views are happening.

Playback and retention are your fist stop for this. These data points will let you know what portions of your videos are being watched most and at what point in your videos viewers are deciding to stop watching.  

Understanding this will allow you to pinpoint the content that your particular viewers find most valuable and what they don’t care enough about to keep watching. Maybe your signature pun midway through a video on frogs isn’t as ribbeting as you thought and you’re actually losing viewers. Taking it out could mean better retention and more valuable overall views.

Furthermore, how many unique views are you receiving? Is it a handful of people watching your videos multiple times, or are they all distinct viewers watching only once. This can be another key indicator of what sort of content you should be tailoring for you audience.

Traffic

Another way to begin understanding the “HOW” of views is to look into your traffic sources. In other words, how are viewers finding and watching your videos? Are they finding your videos organically on YouTube via search and algorithmic ‘up next’ promoting, through blog embeds, or maybe on social media?

The more you can understand about your viewers habits, the the more you can further tailor your channel offerings to increase traffic and overall views.

The last thing I’d like to mention here is keeping track of what devices your viewers are watching your videos on. If a user only watched your videos on mobile devices, maybe keeping your content graphic and easy to make out on a small screen will mean those users will choose your videos over others on their future bus rides.

Subscribers

Now that you understand your views, let’s talk about Subscribers.

The best way to continue to grow your views is to have return customers (i.e. keep the viewers you already have coming back).

Once a user decides to subscribe to your channel, they will have your content surfaced to them on their personal YouTube dashboard. This promotes return visits, more views, and also can mean your content will be suggested to other users that have similar subscription/viewing habits as your current subscribers.

Also, by understanding who your subscribers are, you can tweak your content to try and attract more of the same. Tailoring is the name of the game!

Demographics

For our final leg of this descent into the bowels of your channels’ key performance indicators, we come to the viewers themselves. Not just the screen name associated with the subscribers, but who they actually are. For this you must consult your demographics tool.

Understanding your demographic is key not only to what content you create, but also to your overall branding as a channel.

Do you appeal to the North American 30-something? Maybe the Indian pre-teen? Or possibly the elusive South American 40+?

The importance of knowing your demographics cannot be overlooked. Google AdSense knows your demographics and will run ads specifically for them right on top of your videos, so why not capitalize on that and, at the very least, try not to offend them.

Comments

Opinions are like belly buttons, everyone’s got one. Unfortunately, those that tend to be most prominent on the internet aren’t always the the most positive, or even real.  

I personally, would be completely fine with never having to read another YouTube comments section for the rest of my days, but I wouldn’t be doing my channel (or my career) any favors.

The comment section is your direct conduit to your viewers. To ignore it is a mistake.

Use it to promote positive communication and engagement.  It’s a place for your viewers and subscribers to feel heard and connected. It’s also a great opportunity to develop grace and tact, which will undoubtedly aid you in all future life endeavors.

Playlist placement

Finally, a quick note on Playlists. If you can, get placed on playlists as much as possible. This can happen for all sorts of reasons (too many to get into here), but the important thing is that it happens. Maybe you can figure out why. Keep an eye on your videos that are placed on playlists!

So to review, learn as much as you can about why your channel is successful. You’re putting so much effort into creating your unique content, why not go just a few steps further and make sure that you’re tailoring it for your audience and get the absolute most value out of every video?

If you don’t know, now you know.

The post Why You should know EVERYTHING there is to know about your YouTube channel appeared first on DIY Musician Blog.

What is an Art Track on YouTube?

One of the most common areas of confusion among artists distributing their work on YouTube is Art Tracks. Who can view them? Who owns them? Where do they live? Can I see mine? Wait, do I need any Art Tracks?

Let’s start with a simple definition of “Art Track.”

According to YouTube, an Art Track is an automatically generated YouTube version of a sound recording.

An Art Track consists of:

• the sound recording
• the album art
• and metadata about the recording, such as its title and artist name

“Automatically generated?”

Why do THEY get to generate a second version of MY music?

It’s a funny way to phrase things, but it doesn’t exactly represent the real process for creating an Art Track. Art Tracks, while not directly related to Content ID Administration, can be viewed by those who have access to the Content Management System (CMS). This could be a direct artist, channel, label, or rights administration company (like CD Baby). But, even though they may appear within the CMS like any other sound recording, Art Tracks are actually a part of a completely separate YouTube distribution service called YouTube Music and are not administered or managed via the CMS. Instead, all metadata changes, conflicts, or topic channel assignments are managed directly by YouTube.

Why Do Art Tracks exist in the first place?

The purpose of Art Tracks is to provide a “single official, label-sanctioned YouTube version of every sound recording.”

Once qualified recordings are identified based on their ISRCs, release identifiers (UPC, EAN, GRid), and labels, YouTube will create Art Tracks for each unique combination of these fields. This is YouTube’s attempt to provide as complete a music catalog and experience as they can. Art Tracks appear in the same places and operate in the same ways as produced music videos, (Like topic channels, album playlists, and search results).

If you think about it, Art Tracks are really just simple, auto-generated music videos…which makes sense if you consider that YouTube is trying to provide you with a music streaming experience on a video-only platform.

YouTube as a music streaming service?

The vast majority of music discovery in developed nations is done via YouTube. When a new album drops, or a friend suggests an artist or album someone might like, most folks turn to YouTube.

Almost all modern produced music can be found on YouTube in one form or another. And if an artist has any sort of digital distribution strategy they will likely opt-in for YouTube content ID. This means that YouTube is sitting on the largest collection of digital music in the world. And, at some point, someone in some office somewhere had that lightbulb moment: Why not offer a way for the average YouTube user to stream the music that’s already been delivered to YouTube?

Users were already creating their own DIY Art Tracks and YouTube wanted to provide official representations of every sound recording they could, so they offered current music administrators the option of having Art Tracks created for their music.

What’s the upside of YouTube Art Tracks?

Art Tracks provide:

• better audio quality
• mobile audio-only playback
• music that could be searchable by topic, related artist, and playlist

Furthermore, these topic channels and playlists would be created and managed by YouTube and not individual users. All of this, of course, was by design and in support of the imminent launch of YouTube’s subscription service: YouTube Red.

As a subscriber, you have the ability to listen to every Art Track on YouTube in an audio-only mode that includes all of the goodness of other streaming services, including high-quality audio and genome playlist creation.

Now, anyone on YouTube can search for and listen to any Art Track that exists on the platform. But a cool feature of YouTube Red subscription is that in audio-only mode, it will always favor the high-quality audio of an Art Track over other versions of the song that inevitably exist on YouTube.

So, let’s say you’re listening to a Michael Jackson playlist and Thriller comes on. Instead of having to listen to the drawn out audio of the (amazing) music video that’s probably the most distributed version of that song on YouTube, you’ll be served up the album version in the highest audio quality available.

User-Generated vs Official Art Track videos

So, Art Tracks are official music videos of songs that are available to all who use YouTube and behave like assets on a music streaming platform. Now let’s pump the brakes here for a minute and look at what an Art Track is to the average observer: it’s a YouTube video that has the artist and song name in the title of the video and displays a static image of the cover art while the song plays.

Not exactly a novel idea. In fact, artists have been throwing together their own version of Art Tracks for years. It’s easy, just upload your album (or your favorite artist’s album) and a pic of the album cover and BAM! You have a user-generated Art Track.

So how does one tell a user-generated Art Track and an official YouTube Art Track apart?

Below are a few examples for your viewing pleasure.

Example #1 – User Generated “Art Track”:

Example #2 – Official Art Track created by YouTube:

What’s different?

For one, the descriptions are a dead giveaway:

• in Example #1, the description has pertinent info that the artist has provided, such as their Bandcamp, iTunes, and Spotify links… as well as links to other videos.
• Example #2 is much more simple and to the point. It contains the track title and artist name, the administrator who provided the track to YouTube (CD Baby, of course) and a copyright tag.

An astute eye will also see that the videos in the “Up Next” queue differ between these two examples in a very specific way:

• Example #2 has a video queued up that’s from the artist’s Topic Channel.
• Example #1 has a video queued up from the artist’s YouTube channel.

This is an important distinction in the behavior of these two assets: Art Tracks beget Art Tracks and UGC videos beget other UGC videos.

Now that you can tell the difference between YouTube-created and user-generated videos, let’s get into how they make money.

How do Art Tracks generate income?

Through Content ID, your music is being actively searched for throughout YouTube. Every video that’s uploaded by every user is scanned and we claim it for you if it contains one of your songs. Once claimed, you begin to get a portion of the revenue that video earns through ad & subscription supported views. So, one song can be identified and claimed in hundreds of videos and earn a portion of the revenue from each and every one of those videos.

With Art Tracks it’s much more simple. Art Tracks also earn their revenue via ad & subscription supported views, but that revenue is only ever going to come from views of that specific Art Track. Art Tracks operate like a song on Spotify, only instead of earning per “stream” you earn per “view” (for subscription supported views) and you earn a share of ad revenue generated by ad-supported views.

YouTube Music vs Content ID

As I state above, Art Tracks and UGC videos earn revenue in the same manner (Ad supported and/or Subscription-Supported views) but since Art Track assets and UGC assets are a part of two different YouTube services, the revenue is distributed and reported separately.

• CD Baby members can see revenue from Content ID (i.e. user generated videos) in their account under: Licensing and Royalties > YouTube Content ID.
• And for Art Tracks, revenue will be posted under: Digital Partner Sales > YouTube Music.

Here’s the part that confuses most artists: You can opt-out of having your music administered through YouTube Content ID (though I really don’t know why you ever would) and still have your music on YouTube as Art Tracks.

How could this possibly be!?!

Since the distribution of music as Art Tracks on YouTube is a separate revenue flow, it is therefore a separate distribution service. And any distribution company worth its salt, such as CD Baby, will allow you to customize your service options to fit your particular needs. So, if you are a CD Baby artist, this service will be listed as YouTube Music under the Digital Distribution Partners list in your member’s account and you can uncheck the box next to it if you feel Art Tracks aren’t for you.

So, let’s review what we’ve covered:

• Art tracks are official sound recording assets for YouTube Music with high-quality audio and a static image of the album art.
• YouTube Music is a digital distribution service, while Content ID is a digital rights administration service.
• Art Tracks are a representation of your work, while Content ID enforces your copyright.
• You can participate in one, both, or neither; your choice!

It’s not the easiest thing to wrap your head around, but there it is. If you have any questions about Art Tracks and whether you currently have any available on YouTube, start by searching on YouTube! Next, contact your digital distributor.

And if you don’t have Art Tracks or a digital distributor, check out CD Baby. We can create your Art Tracks (with YouTube Music) and track your art (with content ID).

The post YouTube and the ever-confusing world of Art Tracks appeared first on DIY Musician Blog.

YouTube Subscribes Maketh YouTube Channels.

As we may have mentioned before, the best way to make the most of your YouTube presence is to put in the work. Time and effort, my friends — that’s the key!

It’s hard to put in work if you don’t know where to direct that effort though, so where does one start?

The first thing every channel owner should do is try to fully understand their presence on YouTube. So, that means learning everything you can about your channel, including:

• the video count
• average views
• demographics
• earnings
• ad types
• and more

But one of the most important details to know about your channel, as well as the most effective ways to guarantee consistent viewership, is subscribers.

Why is it so important to understand your subscribers?

Being the responsible channel owner that you are, I’m sure you have that subscriber number burned into your brain. But, where did your subscribers come from? Was it your artistic framing of Bucky The Cat cleansing his unmentionables? Or the gripping visual tale of grandma falling asleep over her french onion soup? And how did those particular subscribes make it to your page in the first place? What were they perusing that ultimately lead them to YOUR collection of brilliant videos? Knowing this will allow you to tailor your channel to your most active demographic and, hopefully, garner more subscribers than ever.

Enter the Subscriber’s Report.

You’ll be relieved to hear that YouTube has just released a new feature under Interaction Reports that will allow you to become an expert on your subscribers.  Check out the YouTube posting for all the details.

Learn your channel, know your channel, love your channel —because if you don’t, who will*?

*Well, actually, we will. Get help optimizing, monetizing, and managing your channel with CD Baby’s Illustrated Sound Network.

The post The most important thing you need to know about your YouTube channel, and where to find it appeared first on DIY Musician Blog.

You’re reading this article because you’re an artist on YouTube, right? Well that’s good to hear! Because I’m going to tell you about something you should really be taking advantage of: YouTube For Artists.

YouTube wants you to be successful. Like, REALLY. And that doesn’t come from some beautiful, altruistic soft spot that YouTube has for its creators [Note: I’m not saying that soft spot doesn’t exist; it’s just that, you know, they’re a business]. The fact is, it benefits YouTube financially and as a brand when you succeed.

“So, what does this mean?”

I’m glad you asked. This means that YouTube provides creators with all sorts of tools and helpful advice to make them the best YouTubers they can be.

YouTube for Artists specifically caters to the YouTube musician.

It became apparent to us after the recent DIY Musician Conference that many of the artists attending were unaware of the YouTube Artist Hub (aka YouTube for Artists). It’s too good of a tool for it to go unnoticed, so here’s a quick intro:

1. Keep your thumb on the YouTube pulse

Firstly, it gives you a temperature gauge of the YT music scene with its real-time music charts. Which is a great place to watch your inevitable meteoric rise, let me tell ya.

2. Improve your YouTube promotion

It also gives insight into how to grow on YouTube as an artist and keeps you abreast of all the hip happenings in the music realm with frequently updated blog posts.

3. Get schooled (in a good way)

Finally, it surfaces useful learning opportunities for musicians on YouTube via one of our favorite YouTube features: The Creator Academy.

So take a second to peruse artists.youtube.com. After all, it was made just for you.

Take your channel to the next level with Illustrated Sound, the YouTube network powered by CD Baby.

The post 3 reasons you need to be using YouTube’s Artist Hub appeared first on DIY Musician Blog.

Artists, are you ready for what comes your way?

[This article was written by indie hip-hop artist Gospel Lee.]

A few weeks ago, I had the amazing opportunity to have my music video filmed by YouTube at their Nashville pop-up studio. It was an incredibly fantastic experience collaborating with such wonderfully talented, innovative individuals. The creative energy was electric and contagious, allowing us to play off of each others’ ideas, which resulted in a music video that I’m immensely proud of.

I used to think that opportunities like this are bestowed by chance or luck, or that they go to those with the most talent or the biggest budget/financial backing. But now I understand that luck is often a product of the lazy person’s mental gymnastics to substitute the reality of hard work. I’m not the most talented rapper that exists, and I’ve got a baby shoestring budget to work with, but looking back at some of the highlights of my musical career (Charting on multiple Billboard charts, opening for multiple GRAMMY award winning artists, getting accepted for NACA college showcases), I noticed 3 elements that I’ve consistently employed.

These elements are not a formula that will result in landing every amazing opportunity every time, but they’re three ingredients that will allow more good opportunities to gravitate your way while also putting you in a better position to take advantage of them.

The 3 ingredients behind my collab with YouTube:

1. The Willingness To Learn

There are artists I know that are insanely talented. They practice every day devoting hours to developing their craft. I ask them how much time they spend working on the business side and they either have no idea about it, or reject the idea altogether in the name of wanting to “just focus on the music.”

Your career will only go as far as your willingness to learn music business. Learning the music business is as simple as finding, learning from, and listening to the experts — and then implementing their advice. One resource that curates these experts on a regular basis is CD Baby’s DIY Musician Podcast. Their podcast library contains dozens of interviews with experts that have been really influential to my career.

CD Baby also holds an annual conference featuring many leading industry experts. A few experts that come to mind who have been on the podcast and attended the conference are performance coach Tom Jackson and industry expert, blogger, and best-selling author Ari Herstand.

Implementing Tom’s advice on live performance has had a significant impact on my merch sales at shows (which account for half of my total revenue) and Ari’s advice has been directly responsible for me signing with a college booking agent, playing colleges, and doing NACA showcases. I have been an avid listener to the podcast for a couple of years now, and it was on the podcast that I learned that YouTube was accepting submissions to make a music video for select artists attending the CD Baby conference in Nashville.

2. The Willingness to Invest

One of my favorite sayings is “the greatest investment you can make is in yourself.”

This is especially true for your music career. No one will care about your career more than you, nor should they. If you aren’t willing to invest in your music career, why would/should anyone else?

The biggest commodities when it comes to investment is time & money. Usually if you have a lot of one, you don’t have much of the other, but you do need a little of both. The takeaway here is that often a willingness to learn requires an investment of time and/or money. Also an investment of time/money is required to execute on the knowledge that you gain. Tom Jackson’s book on stage performance cost me $100 (the most I’ve ever paid for a book) and it is 400+ pages long, but paying for and taking the time to read it has had a significant impact on my merch sales at shows (which, as I said above, account for half of my total revenue), and the money I made on merch at one show has covered the cost of the book four times over.

Ari Herstand hosted a 4-hour webinar on how to break into the college market that cost me $200, but after taking it I signed with one of the top college agents in the market generating income from college shows that was five times my initial investment and securing multiple NACA showcases.

I invested a weekend on my life and spent $800 dollars to attend the CD Baby DIY Musician Conference in 2016 (tickets, airfare, Uber, Airbnb, meals, subway passes, etc), but that is where I saw Tom Jackson do his “live band makeover” and was convinced buying his book and DVD bundle would take me to the next level. At the same conference I met Ari Herstand on the street and offered to review his upcoming book. He accepted and has been a really amazing mentor ever since. This year it cost about $600 dollars to attend the DIY Musician Conference (get those early-bird tickets when you can) and we paid extra for our Airbnb to be there a day early, but that early day was the day YouTube was requiring artists to be there to film videos. Many artists see the value in making an investment for new gear, but fail to see that value when it comes to making investments in career developing/advancing opportunities.

3. The Willingness To Be Prepared

The willingness to learn about awesome opportunities and invest time or money in pursuing them means nothing if you aren’t prepared to seize the opportunity once it’s in front of you. Depending on your goals, you should have some or all of the following things ready to go:

• an elevator pitch
• one-sheet/press kit
• quality hi-res photos
• a good live video
• streaming links
• instrumental and a cappella versions of your songs
• publishing and copyright paperwork (splits/royalty info/copyright registration/PRO affiliation)
• website with booking information
• a social presence

Making all of these assets readily accessible takes work, but artists who have a willingness to be prepared will do the work to get it done.

When I got the final cut of the video back from YouTube, there was an issue with the audio track. It was so easy to send them another version of the song because I had it in a folder in my Dropbox account. I recently got asked for my one-sheet because a major artist was going on tour and was looking for openers. It took 3 minutes to send him a one-sheet that was already in my sent folder.   There are so many artists to choose from, that if your moment comes and you aren’t ready, whoever is extending the offer will likely move on to someone else.

Talent matters. The songs matter, but a lot of the crazy career-building opportunities don’t go to the most talented, or the best songwriters, but the hardest workers. I’ve accepted that I may not be either of the first two, but I can be the hardest working. A lot of talk is made about hard work, but it’s seldom broken down into what that entails when it comes to a music career. Being willing to learn, invest, and be prepared are practical and tangible things that I’ve done which have positioned me to take advantage of some wonderful opportunities.

Below is the video that YouTube shot & directed for us (myself and my team), and which premiered last week on the underground hip-hop blog Str8outDaDen. I hope that as you watch it you’ll realize that if it can happen to me, it can happen for you. Keep working, indie comrades!

The post The 3 things you need in order to seize upon a music opportunity appeared first on DIY Musician Blog.

Rob Flax makes the most of an opportunity.

Multi-instrumentalist and performing songwriter Rob Flax had his suspicions confirmed at the DIY Musician Conference: A combination of eagerness and preparation is the key to success in today’s music industry.

Talent is only a part of the equation, though Rob’s got that part locked in tight, as you can hear when you watch the video he shot with the help of #YouTubeNashville as part of the DIY Musician Conference.

Say YES to everything.

Below Rob Flax talks about his experience at the 2017 DIY Musician Conference in Nashville, shooting a video with YouTube, playing multiple times during the event, and more:

I loved every minute of CD Baby’s DIY Musician Conference and I would recommend this event to any artist in a similar stage in their career: Finally ready with a product, but not sure how to sell it.

Each and every session was chock-full of DIY nuggets, with practical “do this now” advice in almost every area of my business. (This is another good way to decide whether or not this conference is for you: if you’ve just started to call this “your business” instead of just “your art,” then you should go. Buy the early-bird tickets as soon as they’re up. I’m probably going again.)

And then… the extras! The YouTube Nashville Sessions were an inspiring first for me—first time I’ve shot a music video with seven cameras rolling at once. I had rolled into Nashville on a 6am bus that morning from Atlanta, spent ten hours in a recording studio working with a new engineer, and then headed to the YouTube space for a 10 pm shoot. I thought I had a long day, but the film crew had been there since 8 am, working nonstop, and had four straight days at that pace!

The lesson to be learned here: always be humble, because there are so many people grinding just as hard (or harder). How inspiring to collaborate with such hardworking folks who did such an amazing job!

A big takeaway from the conference: say yes to everything. Apply to everything. I got the opportunity to shoot this video because I attended the conference and then applied to participate (the form was only available to conference attendees, and not advertised as a reason to go).

I played at the open mic Friday night because I applied (another attendee-only opportunity). I played again at the after-party Sunday night because I stuck around, and my name got pulled, and I was ready to play as soon as my name was called (instrument in hand, song memorized and prepared).

Each and every performance opportunity came from a combination of eagerness to share my music and the preparation to be ready when a chance arose. I’m learning more and more that this is how the music business works, all of the time. Thank you, CD Baby, for pushing me to be ready.

To learn more about Rob Flax, visit his website.

For more information about the DIY Musician Conference, go HERE. (More information about the 2018 conference coming soon).

The post “This is how the music business works, all the time” appeared first on DIY Musician Blog.

Prep for the holidays on YouTube; reap the benefits year-round!

Aunt Sue is wondering whether she really wants to buy you that album you asked for this Christmas, the one by Sexy Demonic Wombats from Beyond the Gates of Oblivion (“SDWBGO” for short).

If she’s like most people with Internet access, she’ll turn to YouTube for a minute or two of “research” first.

Much to her surprise and relief, Demonic Wombats is a mostly harmless polka band that performs 1970’s prog-rock covers — so you’re all set. She orders the CD and everyone (Aunt Sue, you, the Wombats) is happy come Christmastime.

This is just one of countless examples of how people use YouTube these days. The video streaming giant is now the world’s jukebox, a customizable replacement for both MTV and radio, a deep musical archive, the #1 search engine for music, the #1 music discovery tool online, and much more — all available on your smartphone.

So it’s hardly surprising that artists are now earning so much in YouTube ad revenue. CD Baby pays hundreds of thousands of dollars a month to indie musicians for the usage of their music on YouTube — and the holidays also happen to coincide (not… coincidentally, of course) with a huge spike in YouTube advertising revenue.

One interesting and encouraging thing about the amount of revenue artists generate on YouTube is that people who’ve monetized their music are actually earning more from fan-created videos (also known as “user-generated content,” or U.G.C.) than from the official music videos they’ve uploaded to YouTube themselves.

[Check out our podcast interview with Josh Collum to hear an example of how one artist earned more than $200k from user-generated content.]

As I’ve said in previous articles, the modern music industry is built on a social economy. What your fans do (and want to do) with your music has real value.

No, you’re not going to earn nearly as much per usage as you might if the same song were licensed for a Coke commercial. Instead, with YouTube, it’s all about VOLUME and time (since the videos that use your music will be up on YouTube for quite a while) — and as our monthly YouTube payouts demonstrate, when your fan community is empowered to take social action with your music, you make money.

Here are 6 tips to help you make more money from your music on YouTube (this holiday season and beyond)

Making money from your music on YouTube isn’t just a holiday thing, but this busy music season is a perfect time to make sure you’re doing all you can to take advantage of this increasingly important revenue stream.

1. Sign up your entire back catalog for CD Baby’s YouTube Monetization program

The obvious early step to earning money from your music on YouTube… is getting set up to earn money from your music on YouTube!

In the digital age, your music doesn’t have a shelf life — and you never know when one of your songs will find its audience. So sign up ALL your songs, old and new.

2. Encourage your fans to create user-generated content

It’s the holidays! One of your songs might be the perfect soundtrack to someone’s ugly-sweater video Christmas card, or as the background music to a classic home movie of kids unwrapping presents around the tree.

Here are a couplr ways to get people to use your music:

• Email your fans and let them know they’re free to use your songs for their holiday videos, wedding videos, family reunion videos, company or school projects, vacation slideshows, etc. Your songs are already in heavy rotation in these peoples’ households; might as well be in their crazy cat videos, too! If one of them goes viral, you’ll make even more money.
• Host a video contest where you ask your fans to create music videos for their favorite of your songs. Whether its footage of a dance party, a stop-motion animation, or a bunch of kids lip syncing, these kinds of videos can add up to serious ad revenue from YouTube. Plus, you’ll get to share your favorite of these entries through your website, newsletter, and social.

3. Put your most important links at the top of your video descriptions

For any videos you upload to your own channel, be sure to include the URL to your website or preferred music store right at the top of the description. You want viewers to be able to click through without having to scroll down or hit the “show more” button. Don’t make people search.

The post 6 ways to earn more money from your music on YouTube this Holiday Season appeared first on DIY Musician Blog.

Want to make the most of your music on YouTube?

YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world, one of the most powerful music discovery tools in human history, and the first place many talent buyers, festival bookers, and other industry professionals will look when they’re considering your music for an opportunity.

In other words, YouTube is really really really important when it comes to getting your music out there. That’s why we put together this free guide to help you build a smart foundation for your music on the hugely popular video platform.

The 30-Minute YouTube Bootcamp for Musicians will serve as a quick primer to help you:

• Optimize your channel and videos
• Build your following on YouTube
• Increase video engagement
• Better understand YouTube revenue streams
• Create more compelling video content without going broke

Grab your free copy HERE and start on your path to becoming a YouTube master.

The post The 30-Minute YouTube Bootcamp for Musicians appeared first on DIY Musician Blog.