According to Robert Kyncl, Chief Business officer at YouTube, the average person watches 1 hour 25 mins of video a day. That amount is growing by 25%, and more than half of all teenagers use YouTube as their music streaming platform and music discovery tool of choice. In fact, some of the most viewed channels on YouTube are music channels — Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift come to mind. Kyncl also predicts video will account for 90% of internet traffic by 2019.
The trend towards video doesn’t end there. Facebook has been amping up its video strategy for quite some time now and earlier this year, Netflix ordered an original series based on YouTuber Colleen Ballinger-Evans’ character, Miranda Sings. Established YouTubers are a fairly safe bet for companies, as they already have an engaged and active audience.
So how do you capitalize on this already fertile opportunity? Buying thousands of fake views on YouTube never really worked, and now actually could get your channel shut. And anyway, what YouTube values the most is watch time — the more time users spend watching your videos, the better. Watch time influences how your videos are ranked in search results and how easy your content is to find.
Conclusion: the key is to create good and engaging content. For artists and labels, that means thinking outside the box and adding extra, non-music uploads. Think recording studio, tour diary, taping of music videos, and so on. You can make the most out of every situation this way and increase your YouTube presence at the same time.
Next time you’re planning a release schedule, be sure to brainstorm ways you can make video part of your strategy and just do it, even if it means simply whipping out your phone when you’re out and and about and shooting short but sweet clips. Your fans will love it.
