YouTube strategy company talks campaign success for Benson Boone & More

For all the talk about TikTok and its impact on the music business, there's been a lot less talk about YouTube in recent years. George Karalexis And Donna Budicathe co-founders and CEO or COO of the YouTube strategy company Ten2 Media want to change that. “YouTube is so poorly served by the music industry. Traditionally it was just a place where you could upload your music video,” Karalexis says of the platform where Justin Bieber, Troye Sivan and Maggie Rogers were discovered.

“It has evolved a lot now,” adds Budica.

With the 2021 launch of Shorts, YouTube's video equivalent to Instagram Reels and TikTok, the duo saw an opportunity to create a company that hyper-specialized in YouTube. “YouTube is different than anything else. It’s an ecosystem,” says Budica. “Short films, live streams, longer videos, music videos, YouTube Music.”

Unlike the many YouTube distributors and rights management companies that simply collect money from the platform and send artists and labels a check for what they find, Ten2 sees itself as a high-touch service that takes care of YouTube's collections -License fees, but also supports customers in strategy development and content creation specifically for the platform. These services include helping artists and labels create lucrative livestream loops of their videos, creating playlists of their songs, generating publishing money through user-generated covers, and developing strategies to attract new audiences with their shorts. While billboard has reported several stories about rights managers using fraudulent methods to siphon royalties from YouTube – often from unsuspecting independent artists who don't have access to the streaming service's content management system (CMS) – Ten2 offers its customers a “complete “transparent” dashboard, says Karalexis , which “provides pedagogical tools and a better understanding of analytics – such as what works, what doesn’t work – why and how to accelerate growth,” Budica concludes his thought.

Karalexis and Budica's customers include Warner Records, Rhino Records and a number of distributors who wish to remain anonymous. They say they've achieved great success with mainstream clients like Brent Faiyaz, Benson Boone, Blink-182's Travis Barker, and NLE Choppa (name just a few), and have helped Christian artists Maverick City Music and Don Moen through smart strategies, alone to make six-figure income on YouTube.

Data analytics firm Kantar reported that YouTube Music was the “most used music streaming service” in the second quarter of 2024, and Luminate's findings showed that YouTube Shorts was almost on par with TikTok in terms of US music listeners using the platform – more than 30% – Karalexis and Budica are convinced that YouTube has a strong future. “We saw the writing on the wall,” Karalexis says.

Should all artists use a service like Ten2, or are there artists who do better on YouTube with your guidance?

GEORGE KARALEXIS: If you don't have a partner who understands YouTube (and has access to its CMS), then you're blindsided on the platform. It's not like Spotify and Apple, which take this very (similar) systematic approach where the song just sits there. YouTube is part social network, part streaming service. So if you actively create content on it, you will experience a lot of growth on your own. Additionally, Spotify and Apple don't report how often listeners skip a song or how long people listen to your songs. Getting a partner with access to YouTube's CMS will help you truly understand who your audience is and who your potential audience is.

They have had success collaborating with Christian artists. What makes this genre different from others?

KARALEXIS: We found out that Christian is more song based than artist based. House bands in churches play many covers of popular Christian songs. Don Moen has written huge songs that are covered over and over again, and the covers are even bigger than his original. Through this process we realized that there was a lot of royalties to claim. We have also had success with keywords that Christians search for, such as “Sunday prayer,” “worship,” and similar. YouTube is the second largest search engine for users after Google, so these keywords really help drive traffic. It is also heavily influenced by texts and long-term consumption. We started a 24/7 livestream like lofi girl study is better than videos and it was huge. We found that people watch these streams for an hour and 50 minutes on average. Another example: We also work with some super church pastors. They have such a hardcore fan base that tunes in. You might attract 1,000 people in person, but on YouTube it's 15,000 to 20,000.

DONNA BUDICA: But all of these approaches are genre-independent. It doesn't matter if it's hip-hop or Christian or whatever. Anyone can benefit from a live stream or lyric video or keywords.

What sets Shorts apart in the short video sector?

KARALEXIS: When someone opens the YouTube app on their phone, their mentality is completely different than if they just click on TikTok or Instagram. You are (typically) someone who watches long videos, someone who wants to receive regular updates from the person they subscribe to, while TikTok goes viral quickly. We view Shorts as a brand builder – engaging fans rather than driving audio consumption.

Recently, many labels have moved away from producing high quality music videos for singles. Why do you think this is so?

BUDICA: YouTube is no longer a place where an artist should release a really expensive music video every time and then disappear. Consistency is key and the YouTube algorithm rewards this. If you constantly post a long video (shot on an iPhone) every week or every month, it's better.

KARALEXIS: Hip-hop got it right first. They would make these lifestyle videos where they're with cars and their friends. They show the life that their texts sell.

Robert Kyncl, CEO of Warner Music Group, joined the company from YouTube. Is this leadership one of the reasons why WMG discontinued Ten2?

KARALEXIS: Our relationship actually predates Robert. We started working with Warner in late 2021, early 2022. I Think (Warner Records Co-Chairman/COO) Tom Corson is a really smart guy and is always trying to gain a competitive advantage and find ways to mentor artists differently.

Does the restructuring at Atlantic Music Group affect you and your artist clients?

KARALEXIS: No, we mainly work with Warner Records. We also support a number of indie labels and artists who are not publicly known.

YouTube is trying to launch a TV equivalent to Netflix and other streaming platforms. How will this affect your artists?

KARALEXIS: We're already seeing huge spikes in television consumption. It's the next frontier. It's so hard to break an artist on a phone because of the barrage of notifications you get there. Sometimes I can't even remember what content I was watching because I was so distracted. On television you are not (abused) and therefore have great potential.

Videos created or powered by artificial intelligence are increasingly appearing on social media. Will the rise of AI content hurt your customers’ chances of prevailing?

BUDICA: Every milestone in technological advancement could be malicious. But the reality is that it is there and can speed up content creation. This is how we approach it.

KARALEXIS: Yes, what can you do? Throwing up your hands? Then you stay behind. We have to accept it. We've seen it help with Don Moen's content creation. AI has helped him tremendously in creating quick lyric videos and increasing their output. We have a lyric video generator that can create around 50 versions per day.

Is this the future of short video platforms – producing a million versions of the same thing?

BUDICA: I'll say a gentle no. It's not about blindly increasing the volume. It's good to experiment, but it's about putting out things that resonate with your audience and using analytics to figure out what works.

The last year has seen a surge in catalog sales and a viral surge for songs that are decades old. What options are there for catalog marketing on YouTube?

KARALEXIS: Massive. A change of use is important here. Donna came up with the idea of ​​“surface.” For someone who has passed away or is no longer able to produce new material in the traditional way, the method has always been the same: a remaster, a reissue, but we can do a lot more now. You can reintroduce the artist in a variety of ways. For example, with The Beatles on YouTube, you could create a bunch of playlists (videos that play in a specific order) based on keywords and topics, like “Beatles acoustic songs” or “Beatles love songs.” Sometimes it's as simple as remastering your old videos in 4K and uploading them in higher quality. We are very optimistic about the catalog and are in intensive discussions with some wineries.

You've worked with major labels including WMG, but do you think there's any danger of the majors ever trying to replicate your process in-house?

KARALEXIS The majors could do it (internally), but they downsize and consolidate. It would be difficult and surprising for them to build what we did internally from scratch.