YouTube

YouTube for Artists gives artists access to useful tools and analytics to better understand how their music performs on YouTube and how fans engage with their content across the platform.

Monetisation

YouTube has specific requirements for channel monetization.

Smaller channels may not be eligible to earn money until they meet YouTube’s minimum thresholds. Once a channel reaches the required number of subscribers and watch hours, it can be reviewed again to check whether it meets YouTube’s monetization policies.

You can find more information on the official YouTube Blog.

Official Artist Channel (OAC)

To request an Official Artist Channel, we need:

• the channel ID of the artist’s own YouTube channel
• the channel ID of the Topic channel, where the official art tracks are uploaded automatically

To qualify for an Official Artist Channel, the following requirements must be met:

• You own and operate a YouTube channel that represents the artist or band
• You have at least one official music release on YouTube delivered through a music distributor or label
• Your channel complies with YouTube’s Community Guidelines, Terms of Service, and Copyright policies

Once you have made sure that you meet all the requirements, you can fill in the data in this form: YouTube OAC Request

Please note that setting up an Official Artist Channel can take up to 4 weeks. After that, please check the status of the account.

If you have any questions, please contact labelrelations@digdis.de.

YouTube for Artists tools and analytics

Once the Official Artist Channel has been set up, artists can access YouTube for Artists tools and analytics.

This helps artists understand how their music performs across YouTube and how audiences discover and interact with their content.

Key benefits include:

• Track performance: View important metrics such as views, watch time and audience growth.
• Understand audience behavior: See where listeners are located and how they discover your music.
• Analyze traffic sources: Learn whether viewers find your music through search, recommendations, playlists or Shorts.
• Discover additional reach: Track how your music performs not only on your own channel but also on other channels using your music.
• Measure content success: Identify which songs, videos or formats perform best.
• Improve release strategies: Use analytics to plan promotion and future releases.
• Monitor long term growth: Track subscriber growth and audience development over time.

Explore the official guides here: https://artists.youtube/intl/en_us/