Joy of Synths #13: YouTube & Releasing Music
A non-musician’s guide to creating sounds for podcasts, videos, and sampling for music using analog synthesizers.
YouTube Album Release
An artist named Cavonic released their album “Fear Endless Dismay” on 2/2/24, likely through DistroKid.com, an annual subscription service for releasing music through all music distribution platforms. I believe DistroKid gives the option to release your album to YouTube.com. Unfortunately, this doesn’t always make the most of YouTube for the artist.
On the plus side, the album is listed at the top of Google if you search for the album title “Fear Endless Dismay.” Result 1 is a YouTube playlist, Result 3 is an auto-generated YouTube channel titled “Fear Endless Dismay.”
Both YouTube playlist and channel feature the entire album. Because it’s YouTube, each song is basically a video with the same screenshot of the album cover art. Several tracks share the same static artwork.
Entertainment Attorney
If there is money to be recouped or made then it is worth consulting an Entertainment Attorney. If there are contracts to be signed, do not make any verbal or signed agreement without running it through your own Entertainment Attorney, not a shared attorney who is beholden to their paying client, which is probably not you. So if you’re not paying them, they don’t represent you and your best interests.
An Entertainment Attorney can’t save you from yourself. But if you’re collaborating with producers and engineers then it’s worth the initial financial investment to clear the air of any future misunderstandings or outright theft.
Don’t rely on internet contracts or boilerplate. If you live in Florida, you should be very aware of how quickly laws can be changed and enforced that affect intellectual freedom. Intellectual Property law is ever changing. A good lawyer will be following those developments in case law.
Cover yourself. It’s a lot cheaper to consult an attorney than lost revenue or a shelved project that no one will ever hear.
The alternative to a shelved project is to start with clarity and signed agreements before investing sums of money on gear, studio time, producers, engineers, etc. If the paperwork falls through, then you can proceed with another project with different collaborators. Or decide to do it all yourself if you are so inclined. Let’s get back to YouTube…
YOUTUBE CAN’T REPLACE A VIDEO
The artist can update a video’s title, description and thumbnail poster. But they can’t update the video itself.
They can upload new motion video content like music videos or lyric videos, but the autogenerated videos will be what they are until they are made “private” by the artist. Once private, a new video can be uploaded but it won’t have the views or address of the private video.
IMITATION OF TAYLOR SWIFT
YouTube video titles are a huge part of being discovered by search and suggestions. Autogenerated YouTube content just features the song title and may omit the artist’s name, genre, and anything else that can help people make the decision to click on the video.
Imitation is one avenue of learning. Let’s look at Taylor Swift. Here is a YT video title:
Taylor Swift - Is It Over Now? (Taylor's Version) (From The Vault) (Lyric Video)
For everyone else, the YT Title could be Artist Name - Song Title (further info)(Album Title)(Genre like “Chill Out music”)(Video type)
DESCRIPTIONS
The first sentence is what’s visible to folks. The rest of the description can be found by clicking on the “…more” link. Taylor Swift has autogenerated descriptions that list everyone involved with music production. So that may be an option with DistroKid. If not, then add as much as it makes sense for the track to be discovered.
SHORT VISUAL CONTENT
Making YT Shorts, TikTok, and Instagram posts makes sense to reach the broadest audience if the music can have a broad audience. But for longer tracks, is the audience there on TikTok to support the effort? Possibly. It’s worth experimenting for a short time with short form content.
ADVERTISING
The days of drawing attention to a music release through album reviews in music magazines and zines has long ended. Targeted online advertising is a better 2024 option and you can budget about the same as you would for producing a physical media kit.
But what are you advertising? The release, the artist, or the music label? It helps to think about the project longevity, and what can keep it going in 3 years. A release has a shorter lifespan (hopefully) than the artist. The music label may work with multiple artists, so maybe the music label is the thing to advertise primarily. This leads us to websites.
WEBSITE
This is more or less a long term commitment to save yourself if something open like Twitter becomes a closed system like X. This is what you link to in your descriptions, stickers, and print on all marketing and promo materials. Granted, a social media handle works just was well, but you’re tied to that social media platform.
This also brings up the question of what’s a better website- one for the artist name, for the label, or for the release?
Depends. If an artist is possibly releasing music with multiple labels, then an artist name domain name and site would be worth the time investment. If you are a label putting out possibly a few artists, then investing in a label name domain name makes sense. You can always make artist and release subdirectories if that appeals to you (example: labelname.com/artistname/
A release domain name is worthwhile if that’s what you want to do.
However, directing your attention to social media will probably generate more streams/views than a website. But all this depends on genre and artist’s intent.
SUBSTACK AS AN WEB HOSTING OPTION
If you don’t want to host a website then starting a Substack newsletter might work to your advantage. You can have them host your domain name for a one time $50 fee. You are still responsible for paying for the domain name registration and annual renewal. But it’s not like paying squarespace $17-$29 a month.
Web hosting fees like e-commerce add-ons and shopping carts add up very quickly. And the question has to be answered: what are you promoting and selling, and is the revenue generated able to cover the web hosting costs? And more to the point: is the intended audience really going to visit and buy from your site? Or could you just get by with some payment peer-to-peer app like PayPal or Cash app and market through Instagram?
But what about the sounds?
All the above is not to stand in the way of the project. It’s to open the project to the widest possible audience. Any release of sounds and music is a step towards awareness for listeners and future collaborators.
YouTube Job Description
A few years back an improvisatory musician stated that they weren’t exclusively making music but rather creating content about making music. They struck a balance of live stream performances with explanations afterwards. This drew more of an audience than a musical performance alone. Rather than lament the death of experimental music audiences, they embraced their observations.
Someone else pointed out that people are curious about how things work. So explaining a music making set up will draw some people’s interest.
The same goes for short films. Most conversations with other filmmakers and interested parties begins with what camera did you shoot with. So you might as well make that tutorial video to answer that question to help others and draw attention to the short film.
So YouTube matters for this process. Dedicate as much time as makes sense for you.
End Note 2/15/2023
2024: 40 Days of Sound Suggestions
Lent runs 40 days towards Easter. One thing to pick up for Lent is a different patch set up for each day. Recording those sounds would be another thing to pick up for Lent. Possibly editing them down to samples is another possible goal.
Joy #14 will arrive on 03/01/2024. Cheers! - Anthony Torres
This issue is sponsored by CoWolves. Buy vinyl at https://discogs.com/seller/cowolves.
All Content Copyright 2024 Anthony Torres, All Rights Reserved.