Twitch is the world’s leading streaming platform that caters to all kinds of interests and niches. Usually, it is dominated by gaming content but other content also has a significant piece of the figurative pie. One such content type is music production. Where some of the personalities of the music industry stream themselves producing music.
These types of streams are educational and fun, and fans can get some advice too. As a music producer, you’ll need to pay attention to promoting your content and streams. Because as mentioned before, yours is not the dominant content type. Luckily for you, there are a number of things you can do. We will be going over a few of them today.
Eye-catching Twitch Overlays
A medium such as live streaming on Twitch relies on a good presentation. Before your audience has a chance to check out what content you are streaming, they will first check out how you present it. To that end, there are a number of graphics that Twitch allows such as overlays. These are frames that surround your stream video. To create them for your stream, use PosterMyWall’s twitch overlay templates.
These templates have half the work done and you can tweak them for your stream and channel. This saves time and effort which can be dedicated elsewhere. The best part is that you can create several overlays in one sitting and then cycle through them. This gives a much-needed variety and keeps things fresh for your audience.
What kind of overlay should you choose? It all depends on the kind of music you produce along with your personal style and tone. This template can suit an EDM or a Pop producer well as it has colorful and neon-style design elements. It can also work well for a synthwave producer too. It all depends on your personal style.
Twitch may be your main platform but you won’t get many viewers simply by only streaming. You’ll need to branch out on social media platforms, engage your audience there and then convert them into viewers. As such, create accounts on multiple platforms. Facebook is great for a closely-knit community while Twitter is best for reaching out to a wider audience.
You’ll interact with your followers on these platforms and get them to convert into viewers on Twitch. Talk about upcoming streams, answer any questions they have, and tease exclusive content. You can share snippets of music or demos as well to further whet the appetite. When you’re not streaming, you should be focusing on keeping your viewers engaged. You don’t have to be online 24/7 but logging on daily and interacting for a bit will keep you active.
Metal musician and producer Andromida often teases exclusive content on his Instagram. He uploads snippets from upcoming projects and the like while in the production software to build up hype. These prime up the audience for the release who engage immediately giving listens and downloads. You can use the strategy for both upcoming releases and streams. Show the audience what’s coming and they’ll be sure to engage.
This is the age of short-form videos. Tiktoks, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts dominate content on the internet. People make dedicated videos for these platforms. And even those that make longer content, create short clips from those videos to share on these platforms. Taking advantage of that fact, you can use short-form videos to promote your music production streams.
Take short clips from music from past streams and upload them on the mentioned platforms as teasers. Invite people to come to watch your streams for more. Entice them so that they can learn some expert-level knowledge they can’t get anywhere else. You can also use this opportunity to promote any music releases as well. Since you would be producing music on stream, you’d likely want to release it officially. And short-form videos can help in creating hype.
Host Q&A Streams
Streaming music production and whatnot is good and all. But in some cases, your audience might get some questions they won’t be able to ask anyone else in the industry. It’s not like they can walk up to another producer and ask them questions about the music process. But Twitch and using streaming chat allow them to ask these questions to you. You will always answer the odd question here and there but for better effectiveness, consider holding a special Questions and Answers stream.
You will need to promote this special stream beforehand so you get a good number of audience members online. Then just simply interact with the audience in the Twitch chat and answer any questions that come your way. Be courteous and generous while explaining any concepts that your viewers may ask you to elaborate on. To get a headstart, you can ask them to send in some questions beforehand which you can go through while you get new ones live.
This is a nice way to break the monotony and keep things fresh on your music production Twitch channel. You’ll still be on the topic and within your niche, but you don’t need to produce fresh music for every stream. Every now and then, you can do something like this.
To add some more production value to your channel, consider using custom banners on your profile. These are graphics that are likely the first thing anyone sees when they visit your channel. They are typically used to inform visitors and viewers of your stream’s status. Usually, they tell them that you’re offline and have social media account information. You can easily create such banners with PosterMyWall’s Twitch banner templates.
There will be hundreds of options to choose from so you need to keep in mind the genre that you deal in and if the banner matches it. It must fit the vibe of the music you produce so any viewer who sees this banner immediately knows what you make.
For example, music producer and rapper Mike Shinoda uses such banners on his Twitch channel. His banners are big enough that they are easily recognized and understood. Even when Twitch covers them with past broadcasts, it has enough area visible to get the message across. Since his genre is mostly rap and some rock, he chose a high contrasting option. An EDM producer might go for something more vibrant and flashy. Something similar may work for you as well.
Music producers have, with time, been carving a bigger piece of the pie on Twitch. Some of the biggest names in the industry such as Post Malone and T-Pain regularly stream on Twitch. Although their stream includes other content as well. Other producers stick more closely to the niche and produce music on stream which is watched by hundreds if not thousands. As one yourself, these strategies will help you promote your music production channel on Twitch and keep growing. All you need to do is stick to them and practice them regularly.