The life of a DIY musician is crowded one, and every minute of time saved in marketing and promotion is one that can be spent honing your craft. This means automation is your friend, so here we look at how you can easily boost the growth of your YouTube channel via the inclusion of one simple link, shared in strategic places.

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By Emily Ann Peterson from CD Baby’s the DIY Musician blog

Automate the growth of your YouTube channel by creating a shortened automatic subscription link. Then share it in strategic places.

I’m a renowned lover of all things automation. I’ve automated my emails, scheduling, cooking, reading, waking, sleeping… I do this partly out of laziness, and partly because automation creates time I can fill with more music-making!

Automation tricks are my BFF because modern musicianship is NOT the easiest things in the world these days. So making it automatically easier is always a welcome thing.

In my ever-extended search for making room for more music in my life, I found a GOLDEN EASTER EGG via the magic of Google the other day! I *had* to tell my CD Baby peeps!

It’s so simple and brilliant, I’ll need a drum roll please…

<insert drum roll here>

Step One

Add ?sub_confirmation=1 at the end of your standard YouTube channel link.

Step Two

Run that long ugly link (ex: http://youtube.com/emilyannpeterson?sub_confirmation=1) through a link shortener (like bit.ly, goo.gl, polr, or tinyURL.)

Step Three

Plaster that magical shortened link all over the internet!

… ET VOILA!

You will now automatically prompt visitors to subscribe to your YouTube channel! Whoever clicks on that link will see a magical pop up window with a gentle suggestion to subscribe to your channel!

For example, my new Youtube link is http://bit.ly/EAP-youtube

How to use an auto-subscribe YouTube link?

Basically, that link should live anywhere you and your (potential) fans frequent!

Pop it into your email signature

I email a lot of different people throughout a given day. My email signature is sure to reach venues, press reps, colleagues, clients, fans with a FAQ, house concert hosts — literally anyone I email.

How: Your email provider will likely have tutorial guides for the best way to modify your own email signature.

Pop it into your Instagram bio

If you’ve optimized the home page of your YouTube channel around your latest release, then your Instagram bio is a particularly good placement for an auto-subscribe link.

How: Create a playlist with your newly released video and feature that at the top of your YouTube channel’s home page.

Now when your Instagram followers increase, your new YouTube subscribers increase too!

Pop it into your personal Facebook profile

In your personal Facebook profile, there’s an option to add any links – DO THIS.

After any conference or concert I attend, there’s always a flurry of new Facebook friends. I also get a steady stream of new Facebook friends from my day-to-day music life. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve added a new musical colleague as a Facebook friend and then had a beast of a time trying to find their work online.

Adding your new auto-subscribe YouTube link will make it easy for folks to be your Facebook friend AND a new YouTube subscriber!

How: When you visit the ABOUT section of your Facebook profile, you’ll see an area called “Contact and Basic Info.” There you’ll see an option to add additional links. Paste your shiny new YouTube subscription shortlink and smile with satisfaction.

Pop it into your fan newsletter

Anytime you mention a new music video release to your email list, use this shortened auto-subscribe YouTube link. Not only does the link look better, but you’ll be able to convert your email list from inbox-only fans to YouTube fanatics.

(Just make sure to stay on top of optimizing your YouTube channel for your latest releases!)

Neat trick, but why is this important??

Well first, 38% of global music industry revenue came from streaming services in 2017. Pretty substantial, if you ask me.

Not only that, but YouTube alone made up 46% of all audio and video streaming consumed. FORTY-SIX PERCENT! It is by far the leader in consumer-preferred streaming services.

If you’re a musician with a fan base like mine, not all of your fans 1) have a Spotify account, 2) know how to use it, or 3) even use it at all. But a significantly larger number of them DO have YouTube accounts, DO know what it is, and DO know how to use it, at least on an elementary level.

These consumer behavior reports mean it is crucial that modern musicians like you and me have a continuing presence on YouTube. It may not be our “main squeeze,” but that’s where our fans are.

As Liz Lemon so appropriately says, “We need to go to there.”

This auto-subscribe link can help share your videos with your new fans. The more YouTube subscribers you have, the more “algorithm juice” that new lyric video of yours will get. More algorithm juice means a higher ranking in searches. Higher ranks mean more views and it all just snowballs from there!

So go forth and make yourself an auto-subscribe Youtube link for your artist channel. It’s easy and takes a couple minutes to implement.

Now, may your followers be fans and all your viewers turn to subscribers! Cheers!