Claim your Official Artist Channel and take control of your YouTube presence.
Do you want more control over your music and branding on the #1 streaming platform in the world?
Then you need an Official Artist Channel on YouTube.
We’re really excited to give CD Baby clients first access to join the Official Artist Program, helping you claim your YouTube Official Artist Channel from within your CD Baby dashboard!
What is an Official Artist Channel on YouTube?
An Official Artist Channel (or OAC) gives you a simpler way to manage your videos, amplify your brand, talk to your fans, and promote your music on YouTube.
Without an Official Artist Channel, your YouTube presence might feel a bit scattered. The videos you upload directly would be housed on your own channel; Art Tracks delivered by CD Baby would reside in a YouTube Music Topic Channel; and whatever videos other people create using your music (known as UGC, or “user-generated content”) exist on any number of other channels.
Without an Official Artist Channel, your fans aren’t certain where to go, which channel to subscribe to, or what to watch in order to get the “official” presentation of you as an artist.
Until now!
Owning your Official Artist Channel on YouTube solves those problems.
And with CD Baby as your distributor, it’s easy.
Your Official Artist Channel on YouTube will allow you to:
- consolidate all your videos in one place
- combine subscribers and watch-time across multiple channels
- and access deeper analytics and exclusive tools
Why should you have an Official Artist Channel?
1. Organized content simplifies your life and amplifies your brand
An OAC isn’t a new channel actually; it’s a new layout for your YouTube content.
With an Official Artist Channel, you’ll be able to present a more unified artist image on YouTube and you can take a curatorial approach to the content that has been consolidated on your OAC.
The OAC layout organizes your music catalog into an Album section, and your Official Music Videos are gathered together as a playlist featured towards the top of your channel.
2. YOU choose what to highlight
You don’t want other channels deciding what your most important content is; with an Official Artist Channel, you promote what you want.
You have two important ways to customize your YouTube Official Artist Channel and get the most eyes on the most important stuff:
- The Promotional Shelf: This customizable section can be placed on your channel page ABOVE the automated Music Videos and Album shelves.
- The Featured Video Slot: Place your priority video right there at the top for everyone to see.
3. Your music will be more discoverable in YouTube searches
Fans will be linked directly to your Official Artist Channel from a “watch card” on the right side of the screen. No more wondering where to go, what to watch, or which channel to subscribe to.
4. You’ll be more likely to engage with all your fans
Having one official channel means most of your fan engagement will be happening in one place too. That makes it way easier for you to monitor activity, respond to comments, give shout outs, reward top fans, and more.
5. Combining stats across channels gives you more reach
Not only do your videos and music content get consolidated in one channel, so do the metrics.
Subscribers across Topic Channels will be combined with your own channel subscribers.
Watch time and other engagement stats across Topic Channels and your own channel will count together towards the overall performance of one single channel, which gives your OAC more power and your videos more potential reach via YouTube’s recommendation engines.
6. Unified metrics means more monetization potential
CD Baby already helps you monetize your music wherever eligible on YouTube via Content ID.
But there’s a difference between monetizing music on YouTube on the platform and monetizing your own channel. In order to be eligible for the YouTube Partner Program (YPP), your channel has to meet some minimum guidelines related to annual watch-time, total subscribers, etc. With an Official Artist Channel, the consolidation of videos, music, and Art Tracks — along with the consolidation of all the accompanying metrics — means your O.A.C. will be closer to reaching or surpassing the minimum requirements for channel monetization.
7. You get more comprehensive analytics and special features
When you have an Official Artist Channel, you can:
- Promote your tour and sell concert tickets right from YouTube
- View analytics for ALL your content across YouTube, wherever your music lives (your own channel, topic channels, VEVO, etc.)
- Qualify for YouTube promotional programs like ‘Creator on the Rise’ and ‘Artist on the Rise’
- And more
Yes, that means you can now see analytics on both Art Tracks and user-generated content!
Will I lose control of my own channel?
No.
To clarify, an Official Artist Channel is a way of combining your channel content with your videos and tracks on YouTube Music — but it’s still YOUR channel.
It’s just… official now. As such, your Official Artist Channel must conform to certain layout standards that YouTube deems most beneficial for user experience (for instance, the locked album section and video playlist section mentioned above).
You still have a great deal of control over your channel, and have a lot of customization options.
How will my music and videos appear on an Official Artist Channel?
Your Official Artist Channel will look very similar to the YouTube channel you’ve been managing thus far:
- You’ll have a customizable header image at the top.
- Then there’s a featured video section which can be customized separately for first-time visitors and returning subscribers.
- Next you’ll have a customizable shelf to promote the content that’s most important.
- This is followed by your locked album and music video sections.
- After that, you have complete control over the sections, and can populate them with anything you like: your own video playlists, UGC, other artists’ content on YouTube, etc.
Am I eligible for a YouTube Official Artist Channel?
CD Baby can help you quickly claim your Official Artist Channel, as long as you meet the following requirements:
- You own a YouTube channel that represents a single artist or band
- You have at least 1 official release on YouTube Music distributed by CD Baby
- You have NO policy violations on your channel
Join YouTube’s Official Artist Program
If you’re using CD Baby to distribute your music to digital music platforms, we’ve already delivered your albums and singles to YouTube Music. When we do, YouTube automatically generates a “Topic” channel in your name. Claiming your Official Artist Channel gives you the tools you need to merge that Topic channel content with your own artist channel.
With CD Baby, it’s easy to claim your YouTube Official Artist Channel from within your CD Baby dashboard.
What should I do once I own my Official Artist Channel on YouTube?
Once you’ve got access to your Official Artist Channel, it’s time to get in there and start customizing it! While you’re at it, be sure to explore some of the new tools you have access to.
Your Official Artist Channel is going to simplify your YouTube content and channel management. That means more time for making great music and videos, talking with your subscribers, and growing your presence on the platform. And now that you’ve got ONE place to point everyone, hopefully you’ll see some quick gains in growing your audience on YouTube as well.
Chris Robley is an acclaimed singer-songwriter and award-winning poet from Maine.
His Beatlesque indie-pop and milltown Americana songs have been praised by The Associated Press, No Depression, KCRW, The LA Times, Boston Globe, NPR, American Songwriter, and others.
His poems have appeared in Poetry Magazine, Prairie Schooner, The Poetry Review, and more.
Robley has received a Maine Literary Award in Poetry, Boulevard’s Emerging Writers Prize for Poetry, and in 2016 was selected by former US-poet laureate Robert Pinsky as a finalist for the Dorset Prize.