YouTube for Musicians: Shorts, Long Videos and the Channel

YouTube is a search engine, a music service and a short-form video app at the same time. Musicians who treat it as one thing often miss the others.

The channel

Use one official artist channel. Keep your banner, description and links current. Group videos into playlists by release and type: official videos, live, lyrics, behind the scenes.

Long videos

Music videos, live sessions and longer behind-the-scenes pieces build depth. Titles should be clear: artist name, song title, and the type of video. Write a description that includes credits and links.

Shorts

Shorts reach people who have never heard of you. Use the hook of the song, keep the first second interesting, and post regularly around release.

Connecting them

Point Shorts viewers toward the full video or a playlist. Pin a comment with the link to the song on streaming services.

Measuring

Watch retention and returning viewers, not only views. A smaller video that keeps people watching is worth more than a large one that loses them in seconds.

MusicPromoToday has a page on YouTube music promotion that covers how it runs campaigns on the platform.