How YouTube Monetization works - Basics of YouTube for Artists Pt. 1 of 6 

I've been a professional musician for 40+ years. The transition from the analog world to the digital world happened lightning fast; even though I've been dealing with youtube, streaming, spotify, et al for decades now, and having a modicum of success navigating the various platforms, it doesn't mean that it's all not still very strange and mysterious. I appreciate all these videos that try to help convey basics of knowledge across a wide spectrum of music business nuts and bolts. THANK YOU Tony and disc makers!

Youtubing about youtubing, I LOVE IT. Nice video, man - your videos are helpful and insightful, and you highlighted some p good points tbh. Eat the algorithm.

I am still unsure how best to use RU-vid. I can see two goals for a RU-vid video: making money, or increasing exposure. But unless you are getting millions of views, you won't make any money. So in order to make money, you have to have first achieved exposure. How to get exposure on RU-vid? There are four ways I can think of. 1) Be a RU-vidr to gradually build up an audience of followers. This takes regularly and frequently posting engaging videos of the sort that your audience wants, and particularly by engaging a lot with your audience by speaking directly to them in your videos and responding to comments. You're not just producing good content, you are implicitly making your followers into your friends, people who feel they have a personal connection with you because you speak directly to them on a regular basis. This can be a full-time job in and of itself, and not every musician will want to or be suited to doing this kind of content creation and personal connection-building in their videos. 2) If you have a big audience elsewhere, promote your RU-vid videos on your other channels to send people to view them, or use paid advertising to do so. But considering that such videos won't make any money unless they get millions of views, why would you want to point people to a RU-vid video in the first place, or particularly PAY to do so? (Or Spotify, for that matter.) Wouldn't you rather point them to BandCamp or to buy your CD where you can actually make money? Maybe the only good reason is to point out your channel which also includes other videos you'd like them to watch. But other than that reason, if you want to post the video for free viewing, it's more effective to upload it directly to Facebook than to embed a RU-vid video, since Facebook will promote it more that way. (And Facebook, unlike RU-vid, does promote virality via sharing, and re-sharing. I work with a classical musician who has never got above around 100,000 views on any RU-vid video, sometimes less than 10,000, but a couple of the same videos on Facebook got shared massively and each got over 1 million views within probably just a few days of posting.) 3) Hope to "trigger the algorithm." Aside from some very click-baity content, your chances are iffy and unpredictable if or when this could happen, and it will probably happen seldom to never, so this doesn't really differ from just producing good, engaging content as per step 1 and promoting it from other channels as per step 2. 4) Hope that other people pick up on your content and share it. But since RU-vid lacks an in-platform share functionality (even adding to a playlist doesn't do anything useful), the only thing they can do to share your content with their own followers on RU-vid is to UPLOAD IT DIRECTLY TO THEIR CHANNEL, either by ripping, reacting to, reviewing/criticizing/analyzing, or whatever. The advantage to that is, usually there will be little to no overlap with your own followers, so whenever someone does this, it reaches an entirely new group of people you wouldn't have reached otherwise. In other words, far from being something to stamp out, it may be the case that hoping that others upload your music to their own channels could, and probably should, be one of your main goals on RU-vid. (Whether to monetize or not is an open question. Getting at least a little money would seem sensible, but then so should letting people as quickly as possible get to hearing your music without any irritating interruptions.) I'd especially like to consider art tracks. Art tracks are, as far as I'm concerned, borderline useless. (Again, unless they're getting millions of views and making you real money, which usually happens only with songs that are already a big hit.) Nobody follows topic channels. I've never seen an art track recommended in my timeline even if I DO follow that topic channel. Nobody wants to "watch" an art track. Mostly, art tracks get tens to hundreds of views, aside from a few hit songs that were already ultra popular, and often not even then. I guess in that sense, it also does little harm to have art tracks up: with so few views, it doesn't seem likely they're cannibalizing much of anything. If you have other videos on RU-vid, you're not even getting exposure on a new platform like you would be by uploading to Spotify and other streaming services around the world. Personally, I'd almost be inclined to just leave my albums off RU-vid and not bother with Content ID. If people rip the CD and upload tracks, great, they are giving free promotion to a new audience, while demonstrating their enthusiasm for your music. If it becomes known that you don't even monetize, and actually encourage it, more people are likely to upload your music, react to it, etc. I've discovered a bunch of bands and musicians through reaction videos, but it's obvious that those are the ones who permit it, while the ones who try to strictly prevent it are becoming increasingly obscure and forgotten.

Good work Tony. Well said, "RU-vid is a love hate." On the love side, you can post your own content and it can blow up. On the hate side, others can easily get away with using your music whether you like it or not No Thanks to The Digital Millennium Copyright Act and the "Safe Harbor" laws. RU-vid will take it down if you ask (but it can just go right back up) or pay you on ads that run over the video using your music (but the rates are rather low). Appreciate your work and happy new year man 2021.

Great Tony. We needed this info. Thanks. Wison

Thanks so much. A great topic!

Music Modernization Act: Effective January 1, 2021 Title I, among other things, replaces the existing song-by-song compulsory licensing structure for making and distributing musical works with a blanket licensing system for digital music providers to make and distribute digital phonorecord deliveries (e.g., permanent downloads, limited downloads, or interactive streams).

Thank you Tony!

I love this!

A bit confused. CD Baby seems to take control of copyright once your release is placed with them. I've uploaded my own videos, of my own songs, and gotten flagged by RU-vid for violating copyright! Of course, I've contested it (and won). And I've noticed a number of people putting my music up, generally just as outright posting of the songs - not used as a background for their own video content. For example, it may have the album cover up for the whole video. So how is I get flagged, and they don't? And, am I getting any royalties from this? ASCAP sends a check every once in awhile - enough to buy a White Castle burger (not a cheeseburger, though), and CD Baby sends deposits, but usually from streaming - not RU-vid, as far as I can tell. Very hard to follow. But thanks for the series - your videos are always interesting and informative.

Nice

Hi, I'm Tony Van Veen.

I uploaded some songs on youtube, and when I went to my channel, I found other people's music there, but not mine, so I cancelled my channel. How does RU-vid decide what's on the channel?

You say you plan to give us information in your later videos, that's about it. I prefer conciseness and focus.

Is it a good idea to publish original music on RU-vid then, if it can be copied?

Tony, maybe I missed it, but what exactly is UGC?

John 3.16-21 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.