The biggest YouTube Channels are in fact often music channels. 1st up the ranks is Indian T-Series with over 141 million channels subscribers and 111,034,446,986 video views.
The top 5 don’t stop with surprises. However, if you start thinking outside the Europe-Centric-Box than it actually makes sense.
The first 3 channels come from India (T-Series), Iraq and Argentina. All three countries with large populations and or languages that are widely spoken in the world.
Before you start worrying how on earth you can produce video content in Hindi. Let me tell you another significant success factor. SEO!
Search Engine Optimization works a treat for the biggest YouTube Channels
Well, to be fair, if you haven’t seen this one coming, perhaps you need to read more of this blog later. Long time readers will know my obsession with SEO.
Here’s the kicker. There are many things you can’t influence when starting a music YouTube Channel. Like the country you come from or the average population.
However, SEO gives you the power to at least optimize to an optimum. Somehow, search engine optimization got a bit of an un-sexy reputation.
It probably stems from the times of keyword stuffing and general over-optimization. Back in the days, SEO was more a means to an end than the elaborate and much more gallant practice of today.
However, search engines go through updates, too. A couple of years ago, Google introduced an update that put the user in the centre of all SEO.
What does that mean? It means that you have to optimize your content in a way that is useful for the end-user. It’s all about the user experience.
You might be wondering why I’m telling you this. Well, YouTube is a subsidiary company of Google. Hence the second biggest search engine.
The trick all those well-doing Channels on YouTube do: they fundamentally treat it as a search engine!
Here is some YouTube best practice straight from the biggest YouTube Channels
- Subtitles and multilingual approach
Using subtitles is a super underrated aspect of video content. You never thought about it because you sing in English? First of all, as we’ve seen from the examples above, a lot of YouTube users live in non-English speaking countries. Secondly, a lot of videos are watched without the sound on. This is crazy, but without subtitles, you wouldn’t be able to understand the content. And lastly, subtitles can help people with hearing difficulties or deaf people to enjoy your content as well! You can even create some content in other languages. If you don’t already speak another language you could let your fans help you out. Use Youtube Analytics to identify the most common language and implement it into your strategy. - Being accurate with the upload schedule
It is really important to always upload on the same day and at the same time. Also, uploading fairly often is key, too. Aim for two times a week. However, if that is not possible, try to come up with a content plan that you can stick to. Why? Because people are creatures of habit. If they liked your content they probably want to see more of it. The best way to attract steady engagement to your Channel is by always uploading to the same time. That way, your fans know when to check your Channel for new and amazing content!
‘Most musicians…release one big video clip every few months to YouTube, with nothing in between to keep the momentum going – the kind of sporadic release that the platform’s algorithms dislike.’
*source: Music Ally
At the end of the day, YouTube is just another social media platform
- Approach YouTube as you would other social media platforms like Instagram.
YouTube is oftentimes left out of the social media narrative because of its video content. However, it has many similarities with Facebook and co. For instance, you can share videos with other people or embed them into a website. Just like you can with posts or tweets. Furthermore, you can comment underneath the videos. YouTube even strengthens this by introducing the new post function. Try to broaden your content by also uploading behind-the-scenes footage or talking updates and live-streaming. You could do a cover competition with your fans and let them suggest covers that you will play in the next live stream.