Do you have a full-time job and are looking for a great side hustle? Or perhaps you're a student looking to take a leap of faith with your musical talent. No matter your reasons for seeking out your passion, if you have thought about the possibilities of starting a music career with YouTube, you need to know how to build one effectively.

1. Create a Business Plan

Like with anything, you need to have a plan. What do you envision yourself doing for each video? Do you want to teach people how to make their own music, or do you want to create pop remixes or background tracks for an audience to download? You're still free to expand on whichever niche you choose, but it's smarter to start small at the beginning of any career.

Next, create a budget. This could be weekly, bi-weekly or monthly. What kind of musical equipment will you be using? You may want to invest in a high-quality microphone, a DSLR camera, hard drives, a MIDI keyboard, or a faster laptop. Will you need to pay for a subscription to use Adobe Audition, or will you use programs like Reaper? How much will this cost you?

Tracking all of these small expenses can give you the leeway you need to focus on building your brand. Don't have much experience tracking those digits? Here is how to track your expenses using Google Sheets.

2. Collaborate With Other Musicians

Have you uploaded your first song and are anxious about the number of views you're getting? Don't stress! Artists supporting artists is not only a courtesy in the music industry but can be incredibly helpful when trying to expand your music career. Make use of social media platforms such as Twitter or Instagram and start tagging, tweeting, and reposting.

It doesn't matter how well-known the artists are, what matters is slowly getting your audience to grow. With enough dedication, the right person may spread the word. So, ask that artist to appear on your channel, and you may be surprised with the results.

3. Research Your Audience

With any business idea and especially with YouTube, you want to know who your competitors may be, as well as the ideal audience you're aiming to reach. If you're wanting to write pop music, for example, you want to look at the most popular songwriters on YouTube. What kind of content are they creating, and how can you make yourself stand out in that category?

Music is very competitive, but extensive research can be the key to uncovering a need in the music field of YouTube that you can fill. If there aren't enough piano tutorials, you could use this as your niche.

If you're new to making digital music in general and don't know where to begin, here are some things you should know when buying your first MIDI keyboard.

4. Make High-Quality Content Regularly

Once you've figured out your competition and uncovered what music videos you want to make, content planning is the next important step.

What will you be contributing weekly? How often do you want to be posting content? What will the average viewing time be? You don't want your videos to drag on for too long either, so keep that in mind.

With YouTube, viewers value consistency, passion, and overall high-quality content, but it's also important to set your hours and allow time for work but also for relaxation. You don't want to burn yourself out.

Remember to make content you're good at, it will establish authority in your niche, whether that be producing electronic music or providing piano lessons. And it's also a good idea to make yourself familiar with good video recording and editing techniques, this will level up your videos.

5. Increase Your Engagement

One of the most important things when building an online business of any kind is engaging with others, fans and non-fans alike. With YouTube, this can be done in a variety of ways.

Firstly, you want to nail your thumbnail, and you can do this by piecing together a clear, catchy image along with bold text to make it pop. This can make you and your brand more identifiable. Here is how to make the perfect thumbnail for your YouTube videos to impress your audience.

You can also use a multitude of tools to assist with your YouTube channel engagement. Use programs like Hootsuite to track your analytics such as performance over time; this can make it easier for you to understand what your audience wants.

Don't forget to create social media accounts that will link back to your channel as well; Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram can make a world of difference when it comes to getting people to your pages. And remember to interact with your followers, reply to their comments and DMs as much as possible.

6. Market Yourself and Your Music

Social media is a great tool for marketing your YouTube channel and assisting with your music career, but there are many other ways to do this:

  • Use hashtags on all of your social media posts.
  • Write a good video description.
  • Write engaging YouTube video titles.
  • Promote other creators on your channel.
  • Run a small contest or giveaway relating to your brand.
  • Create a playlist to organize your content and make it easier for viewers to sift through.
  • Do live streams of you playing or producing your music.
  • Reach out to sponsors and advertise their products that relate to your brand.
  • Use an organic YouTube growth service to help get your content to your target audience and increase your viewership.
  • Increase your ranking with SEO strategy.

Jumpstart Your Music Career With YouTube

Although it can sound like a daunting journey, building a successful music career with YouTube is possible as long as you are dedicated and passionate about making it work.

Whether you've decided on composing music or making professional video reviews of instruments, it could potentially turn into a full-time gig. So, take out your tripod and camera and start recording.