Uploading Music Videos In YouTube

There are many once unknown music artists who became famous by uploading their music videos to YouTube. In fact, even famous music artists have uploaded their music videos to YouTube because they understand how YouTube can be very instrumental in furthering one’s musical career.

Justin Bieber

Perhaps one of the most famous examples of an unknown music artist who became famous due to YouTube is Justin Bieber. A record producer accidentally watched one of Justin Bieber’s YouTube music video and was impressed.

At just 13 years old, Justin Bieber was signed by the record producer’s music label and from here, everything became a history for the Canadian singer-songwriter. He became an instant teenage pop sensation.

His YouTube music videos have millions of views and his concerts have been financially successful ventures with him attracting the financially lucrative teenage market for young girls. Everywhere he goes around the world, he is followed by his fans as well as the paparazzi.

Due to Justin Bieber’s YouTube success, many aspiring and unknown singers have also uploaded their own music videos in the hopes of getting noticed and discovered the same way Justin Bieber has been noticed and discovered.

Korean K-Pop

Once unknown, Korean K-Pop has become well known throughout the world with its all-girl and all-boy music groups. One of Korea’s breakaway male singers is Psy. He popularized the song Gangnam Style. The song’s YouTube views is 2.894 billion currently.

It used to be the most watched YouTube video before being beaten by another music artist with 2.895 billion views. The views don’t matter much as it would be hard to beat Psy’s solid second place YouTube view record.

Just like Justin Bieber, Psy was relatively unknown outside of South Korea until his hit song Gangnam Style exploded in view in YouTube. Many music experts claim that it was Psy and his Gangnam Style song that propelled the Korean K-Pop music to the international markets.

The Power of YouTube Exposure

Based from these two examples, we can definitely say that YouTube could be a way for instant stardom for any music artist and in fact, any video content producer to become famous and be known on a worldwide basis.

One can only see the facts about YouTube to know why this is so. YouTube has more than two billion viewers as of the end of 2019. The year now is 2021, and we could expect that there would be more viewers of YouTube now.

As of 2012, YouTube is available in almost all the countries in the world except for China, Iran, Syria, and Turkmenistan. This means any music artist can reach and be heard in almost all countries in the world due to YouTube.

If you are telling yourself that not all people watch YouTube for the music videos then you are correct. However, bear in mind that YouTube has special emphasis for musicians. YouTube actually actively promotes the development of music videos.

If YouTube is interested in music videos, then there is bound to be money in it. For example, Vevo the music streaming company discontinued streaming music on its other online platforms just to concentrate on YouTube as its main platform.

This means there is good money to be made from showing music videos in YouTube. Otherwise, Vevo would not have made the critical decision to go exclusive with YouTube as their main platform.

What Music Videos Could You Upload In YouTube?:

Although many video content creators upload music videos in YouTube, the formats could differ based on the format the video uploader prefer, and maybe due to the budget of the video uploader themselves.

Copyrighted Content With Or Without Permission

There are many popular old, current and new songs that are available in YouTube. One question that might be asked by those who happen to find these videos is this: “Do these music videos have permission to upload these songs?”

For example, I find many very old songs in YouTube. We are using the current year 2021 as a reference. Some of these old song go back as far as the year 1920s. While these songs may be very old, most of these songs still have their copyright in place.

I also noticed when playing the YouTube music videos of these songs, that there are ads inclusive in the video. This means that someone is making money out of these old songs whose copyrights are still in place.

I know that YouTube has a system in place to remove videos that violate copyright laws, including videos that show very old songs whose copyright is almost due to expire in a couple of years.

If you are one of these people who intentionally violate copyright laws or unaware of this, I suggest that you ask permission or pay for copyright fees should you try to use copyright laws. You should understand that you could also feel violated if your copyright is violated once someone copies your video or any digital content.

You also need to consider that copyright fines could be hefty, and there are copyright owners who are so vindictive that they sue for a high amount in court anyone who violates the copyright ownership they own.

Covers Of Songs

Firstly, let us answer one of the big questions about covers of songs. Do copyright laws still apply to them? The simple and direct answer is: “Yes.” Covers of songs are still copyrighted and the owner of the song is still entitled to any financial gains that resulted from their song getting covered.

So even though you see many videos of people doing covers of songs from famous singers, most likely almost all of them have no permission to cover the song of that famous singer or musician.

You might ask, “But why are there so many covers of songs in YouTube? Surely, they would have been caught right now?” The simple answer is that YouTube has too many videos. There are 720,000 hours worth of video that is uploaded to YouTube everyday.

This makes the task of policing copyright infringement extremely difficult for YouTube. You also have to add to the fact that due to Fair Use Laws, many video content in YouTube can get away with traces of copyright violation.

Instrumentals

Not everyone has a voice for singing but still has a musical talent. There are musicians who upload instrumental music to YouTube which may or may not be their own. Uploading this music has definite advantages as compared to uploading songs.

As previously discussed, there are those who do not have the voice for singing but can play musical instruments or operate sound producing equipment. This means that they can still produce music but without their own voice.

Believe it or not, there are still many people out there who like listening to instrumental music. As a matter of fact, classical music which is pure instrumental music is still being played in many parts of the world and is still popular.

The added advantage of playing classical music is that the copyright they have already expired a long time ago. You could upload classical music as much as you like either in their original form or in your desired form.

There are in fact many instrumentalists who upload music videos and their entire albums on YouTube as samples of their work. They not only earn YouTube ad revenue, but their music also get to be widely known all over the world thanks to the global reach of YouTube.

In fact, this is how I discovered and bought one of my instrumental albums. I am interested in steampunk scene and had no idea what steampunk music sounds like. I discovered steampunk music courtesy of YouTube.

If it hadn’t been for YouTube, I could have missed out on steampunk music and its popular singers. This is also how I discovered other music genres and singers which are very unknown in popular media.

Original Music

Perhaps the best use of YouTube for singers is in the fact that YouTube lets you get discovered by your potential listeners outside of the popular media mainstream. We all know that pop music and rap had dominated the musical genre.

But not everyone likes pop or rap music and the number of the alternative music could be enormous and may number in the millions or even almost all the people of entire countries. For example, heavy metal music is largely confined to some countries in Europe, but there are many people who listen to them throughout the world.

And how is heavy metal music discovered and listened to by their global listeners? Most heavy metal bands and other alternative music bands or singers are now discovered due to YouTube. Most popular media companies won’t give these bands or singers the time of day, so they turn to YouTube.

For example, how does a person living in an Asian country discover and listen to a Mexican Mariachi band? This could be solved by YouTube. In fact, there are many people who subscribe to the premium version of YouTube so they can listen to songs without ads.

But Should You Upload Your Music Videos To YouTube?

If there are many people who agree that you should upload your music videos to YouTube, there are also many people who disagree. This are usually the musicians and singers who already have a following even without YouTube.

These are usually the musicians and singers who became famous before uploading music videos to YouTube became popular. They reason that there is little income to be made by uploading their music videos to YouTube.

Their reasons are understandable. They are already popular or somewhat popular and they might not need the exposure that YouTube brings. For them they are not gaining money, but are losing money when they upload to YouTube.

To them, YouTube ad revenues are too small as compared to the individual sales of their songs. They also fear that when they upload their songs to YouTube, they cannibalize their song’s record sales.

It’s All About Exposure

If you are thinking this way, then you are not really attuned to the music industry anymore. The once lucrative sales of music media in physical medium is long gone except for a few places like Japan, but streaming music is here to stay and is now the norm.

As a result, many musicians have to work harder to market themselves over and over again through all forms of music mediums throughout the world. And this is where YouTube excels, giving you global exposure.

For example, when Korean K-Pop was still at its start and still struggling to find a global market, one of the strategies K-pop band or their promoters implemented was a media blitz using YouTube.

K-Pop bands targeted the YouTube music listeners not only with their music videos but with other types of music related videos. For example, there are YouTube K-Pop videos which shows K-Pop bands introducing themselves and being interviewed.

As for me, this is how I also discovered Korean K-Pop bands. I was not interested in them before, but due to their music video ads in YouTube I discovered them and eventually got to like some of them.

It is even stated now that unless a musician or singer advertises in YouTube, they would be outstripped in exposure by those musicians and singers who do advertise in YouTube. I say that without YouTube these days, one cannot hope to gain an almost global exposure.

Conclusion

The days when singers and musicians earned lucrative money from selling music in physical media is long gone. Now, streaming music is the norm and musicians and singers have to work even harder to earn money from their music.

One of the ways to earn more money is by finding new listeners to your music, especially on a global basis. This is where YouTube excels, it helps promote your music because it reaches a global audience of approximately two billion and more.

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