Trend in Music Marketing: Uploading A Whole Song Onto Youtube

I can remember when I first started using Youtube around 2006 or so. Back then, there was not nearly as much content as there is now. The sound quality was not great in the early days, and videos were usually pretty short. It was rare to find a record label or artist uploading an entire song on Youtube in the early days. Over the years though, Youtube's sound quality improved, and a vast amount of content has been uploaded. At some point it started to become relatively easy to find uploads of most popular songs, usually uploaded not by the record label or artist, but another Youtube user. Lately, that is changing by my observation. It is becoming much more common for labels and artists to upload their own songs onto Youtube.

I am sure there are pro's and con's from the standpoint of a label or recording artist who uploads full versions of their songs onto Youtube. I think overall though, it is the good decision for most music makers to make. First of all, from a practical standpoint, most popular music is going to get uploaded anyway. Second, you can monetize Youtube videos and make decent money off of that. Third, Youtube can be a promotional tool that can lead to more avenues to earn money on your music. Though many everyday consumers may not ultimately purchase a song if it is uploaded in full on Youtube (though I don't know if there is a correlation or not), if it gets hundreds of thousands or even millions of views, it is fantastic promotion. Though you may not make as much on song downloads, you may get deals to have your music in a film, on a commercial, on a television program or get live performance gigs based on the success of your music.

Ultimately, I would say use Youtube to get as many people to hear your music as possible and monetize the video so that if it goes viral there is some cash coming in off the video. Otherwise, it might be a wasted marketing opportunity.