YouTube Shorts: A Brief Guide For Musicians And Artists

Want to promote your music or your art? Then look to YouTube.

However, a lot has changed since YouTube was launched years ago. Today, people can upload shorter and vertical video (short-form video) onto the platform. As such, short-form video can be a powerful way to promote your music and or art.

How?

This brief guide will first explore what YouTube Shorts are. Then, we will show you how to implement music into your videos, whether they’re your music, or someone else’s. Afterwards, we will share some helpful tips on how to use YouTube Shorts to your advantage.

Let’s dive in, musicians and artists!

At First Glance

“YouTube Shorts is essentially YouTube’s offering of short-form, vertical video content,” says Jessica Wayne, a business writer at Simple Grad and Via Writing. “Since YouTube is a popular video streaming platform, it’s no surprise that it would follow in the footsteps of other platforms like TikTok. With YouTube Shorts, content creators can reach out to more audiences, while deepening the connection with fans. Whether it’s using clips of an existing song, or putting out original art and music, content creators can create a Short in more ways than one.”

Getting Your Music Into YouTube Shorts Library

Want to have your music downloaded into the YouTube Shorts library? You’ll need to first check to make sure that your music is eligible enough to be in the library. To do this, you’ll need to distribute your music to YouTube Music.
Digital platforms like CD Baby can be reliable distributors to YouTube Music and YouTube Shorts.

Creating Shorts With Your Own Music

Here’s how to create a YouTube Shorts video, and then add your music to it:

1. Sign in to YouTube (YouTube Shorts are only available on mobile).
2. Tap “Create.”
3. Then tap “Create a Short.”
4. Start recording. (You’re only allotted 15 seconds of recording.) As you record, hold the “capture” button until you want to stop. Or, you can tap it to start or stop filming.
5. (Optional) Tap “Speed” to record fast or slow.
6. (Optional) Tap “Timer” to set a countdown to record hands-free, and set when to automatically stop recording.
7. To add music before or after filming, tap “Add Sound.” Pick the music.
8. Want to remove a previous clip? Tap “undo” to remove the previous video clip you recorded. Or, you can tap “redo” to add it back.
9. Tap “done” to preview and enhance your video.
10. Afterwards, tap “NEXT” to add video details.
11. To add a song or audio after you record, tap “Sound” (located at the bottom of the edit screen).
12. Add a catchy title to your video.
13. Finally, tap “UPLOAD.”

Types Of Content To Create

“The great thing about YouTube shorts for musicians and artists is that there are many ways that people can create content for the platform,” says Cameron Gibson, a marketing blogger at Academ advisor and Writing populist. “Like any other video streaming platform, YouTube shorts offers a plethora of ideas to either try, invent, or reinvent. The only limit is your imagination.”

With that said, here are some great ideas on the type of content to put out on YouTube Shorts to kickstart your music and artistry:

Covers of your favorite music

Clips of your music videos

Behind-the-scenes videos (e.g., studio sessions)

Previews of upcoming songs

Acoustic sessions

Promos for new music

React videos of other music videos, performances, etc. from YouTube; and so on…

Again, there’s no limit other than your imagination.

Helpful Tips

Finally, here are a few helpful tips on creating content on YouTube Shorts as a musician and or artist:

Be visual with your work. What’s music and art without the visuals? This is where you can let your creativity as a musician or artist shine.

Keep it short and sweet. Short-form videos were meant to be… well, short-form. So, think about brevity, as you create your Shorts.

Take advantage of musical trends. Whether it’s lip-syncing, dancing, etc., have fun, and make it yours!

Don’t just focus on your own music. If you’re still new to the music and art industry, you may want to experiment with existing songs before you jump head-first into making your own brand.

Conclusion

As you can see, YouTube Shorts can do wonders for your music and or art career. So, if you want to make waves in your career, start making short-form content on YouTube Shorts today!

Rebecca Leigh is a marketing strategist and writer at Top Canadian Writers and Best Australian Writers. She is also a contributing writer for Top essay writing services. As a content writer, she writes articles about tech and marketing conferences, consults businesses, and social media.