How to Make a Music Channel on YouTube

Last Updated: February 28, 2023

Developing and maintaining a successful music channel on YouTube is no easy feat. It will require lots of thought, tact, and a keen sense for an audience's desires. This article will give you the steps you need to create and run a music channel on YouTube.

Steps

1
Make a YouTube account and pick the right name. So you want to promote music, huh? You should let people know that by picking the right name! You want to upload pop? You could try PopMusic5ever, for example. Drum and bass? LiquidMelodies is good if you choose to keep it smooth!
2
Choose the music style you want to upload. This is important! You can choose multiple genres, like uploading EDM genres or electronic music, uploading all types of rock music, and so on. You can also stick to one genre (like dubstep), or choose the mood of your songs, like uploading relaxing or uplifting music only. You can also upload free songs, film songs, meditation music, and many others. Choose wisely!

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3
Choose the right pictures for your video. For happy songs try adding happy, colorful pictures like a landscape, clouds, or anything you like, but for atmospheric stuff choose darker, paler colors, like an abandoned street, a forest or even black-white photos. You can either add digitally painted, photographed or abstract pictures to your videos. You can choose one type of picture for your channel uploads, to make it more aesthetic (like a simple background with your logo in the middle).
4
Make videos often and upload them to YouTube. Make good quality, HD videos, so you'll attract more people. Don't abandon your channel! Even if it seems like you can't get more than 5 subscribers at the moment, later the future of your channel will be brighter, so don't give up! Make music videos weekly, or even daily. You can write an opinion/description in the description, like 'This song is from a young dutch talent, from his 'The Future' EP. I love it! Will be available to buy on Beatport on 01/08/2014. Enjoy!' or anything like this.
5
Upload the newest songs. It's not recommended to upload old songs that can be found everywhere and are known by everybody. Upload songs that came out a few days, maximum a month or two before. Always provide the freshest stuff!
6
Have a logo and a motto. This is a hard step. However, having a logo as your profile picture and a motto in your channel description can make your account look more professional, and this way you gain more subscribers. The logo should be related to your name, or it can be your name in fancy letters, you decide. A motto is something that describes your channel, like 'The freshest music, every day!'
7
Get ideas from other uploaders. How are they doing it? What are they using? What style does their channel have? You can always look for ideas.
8
Give credit to the artists! Never forget to give credit in the description to the artists, both who made the song and the picture!
9
Share your videos on social sites and with your friends. Made a new video? Great! Share it on Facebook, Twitter, Reddit...
10
Make fan pages of your channel. Your subscribers would be more than happy to like your Facebook page!
11
Be patient! It takes a lot of time and effort for someone to become popular as a music promoter. You can see that even the most popular people had to work years on their channel. Good luck!

Community Q&A

Question

What about visualizers? Are there any cheap and easy ways to make those?

Community Answer

Free audio visualizer software is very difficult to find. There are online visualizers, but you have to pay per video if you want it in HD quality. Adobe After Effects is super easy, as you can use templates made by others.
Question

What if the music is copyrighted?

Community Answer

The best option would be to ask the producer for permission to add the song to your channel.
Question

How do I know what songs are copyrighted without going through the trouble of emailing the producer?

Community Answer

Every piece of music, in fact, every work created or constructed, is copyrighted because it belongs to its author. It's up to them what kind of copyright they claim on it. Today, a creative commons license on music is very common, and basically means that the work is free to use in any way (commercially sometimes), as long as the rightful owner gets credit. On Soundcloud you can see what kind of copyright they claim. If you know the music is being sold commercially, don't even try.