On YouTube you’re the pink space above. That’s it.
With a pre-roll ad you disappear.
See those videos on the side? Distractions. Noise. All aiming to be more compelling than your video, chosen my algorithms to drive more clicks (and money) for YouTube. Cha-ching (for them, not you).
That’s the fight you enter into each time you Tweet a link to your brand new video on YouTube.
You’re bringing a knife to a gun fight.
Do this instead. That pink space? That’s yours.
Fill your space with upcoming shows, links to your merch, and / or pretty pictures of your cute face. Don’t give up that space to other bands, makers, speakers, or bullshit BuzzFeed videos (because they’re engineered to win).
It’s 2015 – start driving traffic to your stuff instead of landing pages for fancy-pant sites engineered to distract your fans.