To optimize your music video for YouTube search, you need to add a description that helps your fans AND helps you rank in the YouTube algorithm.
It is a crucial part of your YouTube Music Promotion strategy, and without it, you are missing a great opportunity to showcase all your important information.
As an artist, there are a few things that you want to focus on.
The main focus of a good YouTube video description should be your music (related) links.
This might sound obvious, but it also means there should be no irrelevant links in your description.
I have written an example of a complete YouTube video description, tailored to musicians/artists.
You are free to add or remove stuff if needed, but I hope it gives you a rough idea of the content that needs to be in there.
Free YouTube Template for Musicians/Artists
Here is a template that you can copy and paste if needed.
If you want to use it into every video, that is possible too.
In the YouTube Studio, you can go to settings -> Standard upload settings -> Basic Info. And add the description below.
Use brackets as a placeholder for additional text, and leave the full description as is.
YouTube for Musicians Template
[Description of the video]
Example: Live show at … with guest appearances from …
The Latest studio album from … full version/EP
Chapters/Songs (for full albums/live shows):
0:00 Intro
0:20 song 01
Chapters are not needed for a single song, but they can help to indicate important parts in a video.
The most important part of it is the numbers/timestamps. Always start with a 0:00.
Enjoy the full album here/on the following streaming sites:
-Bandcamp link
-iTunes link
-Spotify Link
-Online cd store
FANSERVICE?
If you have any interaction you want to promote, like Q&A or information on Facebook or a contact page on your website, this is the place.
Extra links for merch/tickets/updates/newsletter
- Merch store link
- Tickets sales for upcoming show
Lyrics for song:
Simply add the lyrics to your song here in plain text.
As an extra service, you can add lyrics as closed captions to your video! Your fans will love it!
Additionally, you can also add a link to your website, which contains all the lyrics to all your songs.
Not only can this increase your website traffic, you also create a great opportunity for you to build an email list!
You can offer your full album lyrics (or your first song) for free, in return for an email. Great way to build a list with true fans!
(You can build an email list for free with Mailerlite, up to 1000 subscribers/fans! Read more about that in the Blogpost: Email Strategies for Musicians
Bandname:
-Members list
A simple list of band members.
Also, this can be a good place to add other people that helped with your video.
Think of camera crew, make-up, venues where you filmed, etc.
DISCLAIMER (if needed): This video and description can contain affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. This helps support the channel and allows me to continue to make videos like this. Thank you for your support!
#YOURBANDNAME #STYLE/GENRE OF MUSIC
Extra settings
After you added all this information, you also need to add some tags for your video.
These are the small word bubbles that you see below your YouTube description, like you can see here in the example.
Insert Image
Good tags help YouTube determine what is in your video.
Note that they are a small factor in ranking on YouTube, so don’t hyper-focus on this.
But, because it is still important, here are some examples that you can use in your next Music Video.
Tag options
Always first:
Title of the video, Band name, album name, (optional band members name)
Other tags:
Style of music, similar bands, notable events, short keywords that match the style (metal/rock/classical).
Some longer keywords that include more detail of the content of your video.
Romantic beach music, high speed rock music, female fronted metal band
To find the best tags, do a YouTube search for all words you come up with.
For example, if you are a female fronted metal band, see what comes up in YouTube search and check the keywords in their description.
This is what comes up after I used it on YouTube:
Insert images from YouTube search
Bonus tip:
A great tool to help with this is TubeBuddy.
It is a free tool that you can try by using this link:
https://www.tubebuddy.com/musicmindset
(The paid option allows for more keyword and tag suggestions)
Keep creating awesome music and share it with the world!
Maurice from Music-Mindset.com
