FOR MUSICIANS & BANDS
YouTube for Musicians: Channel Set-Up, Shorts and Live Sessions
How independent UK artists can set up a YouTube channel, apply for an Official Artist Channel, use Shorts, go live, organise playlists and build a community.
How independent UK artists can use TikTok: choosing sounds, writing hooks, posting consistently, getting your own track onto the app and learning from analytics.
To use TikTok for musicians, post short videos built around a strong opening and a sound others can use. Get your own track on to TikTok, usually through your distributor or SoundOn, then post consistently and learn from the videos that hold attention. You don’t need a big following, just regular clips and a clear idea of who they’re for.
TikTok for musicians has turned into a place where songs get discovered as well as shared. A clip of a half-finished chorus, a drum fill or a moment from a gig can travel a long way past the people who already follow you.
That’s a big draw for independent and unsigned artists in the UK. It does reward a different approach from other platforms, though. Below is how artists tend to use it, and what to check before you start. TikTok is one part of a wider social media strategy for musicians, and for the bigger plan there’s our guide to marketing for musicians.
Most working artists come back to a few repeatable formats:
Choose the one or two that come naturally to you. A band that loves messing about in rehearsal will find that far easier to keep up than a polished performance every single time.
On TikTok, a sound is the audio attached to a video, and other people can often use it in their own clips. For a musician, that’s the whole opportunity. When people use your track in their videos, every one of those videos spreads your music.
So think about which moment in a song would suit a video. Lots of artists choose the hook, a lyric that captures a feeling or a beat drop, and build a clip around that one section instead of posting the whole song. If you can, make the moment easy to recognise within the first second or two.
For people to use your music, it has to be in TikTok’s music library. There are two routes worth knowing.
Plenty of distributors can send your releases to TikTok along with the streaming services. Ask yours whether TikTok is included and how long delivery takes. It varies, so don’t assume.
SoundOn is TikTok’s own music platform. TikTok’s newsroom says it is free to join, lets artists upload music directly to TikTok and earn royalties when it is used, and comes with audience insights and promotional tools. A later announcement lists the United Kingdom among the countries where it is available, and says it pays 100% of royalties in the first year and 90% after that. Those announcements are several years old now, so check SoundOn’s current terms before you sign up.
Whichever way you go, plan ahead. Get the release into TikTok’s library before the day you want people using it, so the sound is sitting there ready when you start posting.
A hook is anything that stops someone scrolling in the first second or two. For musicians the strongest ones are usually simple:
Keep videos tight. If a clip works at 15 seconds, don’t drag it out to 45. Good light and clear sound count for as much as the idea, and some basic music videography pays off once you want a signature look.
Turning up regularly beats being perfect. TikTok doesn’t publish a number, so pick a rhythm that fits your week, whether that’s three clips a week or one a day, and stick with it for at least a couple of months before you decide whether it’s working. One video can perform completely differently from the next, so a single flop tells you very little.
Batch where you can. A single rehearsal can give you several snippets. A gig can keep you in clips for a fortnight. Jot ideas down as they come so you never start from a blank screen.
Use analytics to find out what to do more of. Don’t treat them as a scoreboard. Look at your own account’s numbers for patterns across several posts:
If you’re using SoundOn, TikTok’s newsroom says it gives you audience insights too. Work with whatever figures your account shows, and change one small thing at a time so you can tell what made the difference.
Filming, editing and posting short videos every week is hard to keep up when you’re also gigging and writing. Through our social media management for musicians, we can build a plan around your music and help with ideas and captions as well as publishing, so your channels stay consistent. A clear brief, scope and fee are agreed with you before any work begins.
No. Everyone starts at zero, and a good clip can still find an audience. Treat the first few weeks as practice. Post regularly, notice what people respond to and keep refining, instead of expecting quick results. Quality and consistency count for far more than the number on your profile.
TikTok’s newsroom describes SoundOn as free to join and lists the UK among the countries where it’s available. Those announcements come from earlier years, so read the current terms on SoundOn’s own site before you sign up. Check the royalty rates, and how it fits with the distributor you already use.
Be careful. Other people’s songs and recordings are protected by copyright, and the rules can be different for promotional or business use. If you’re promoting a gig or your act, check TikTok’s current music and commercial guidance. Don’t assume any track is free to use.
A snippet usually works better. Pick the hook, a line people will remember or the most exciting moment, and keep the video short. People who like it will go looking for the full track, so make your link to the song easy to find.
It varies hugely, and nobody can promise you a timeline. Give yourself at least two or three months of regular posting before you judge whether the platform suits your music. Compare your results against your own earlier numbers, never against other artists.
How independent UK artists can set up a YouTube channel, apply for an Official Artist Channel, use Shorts, go live, organise playlists and build a community.
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