Ever dreamed about going viral on YouTube or making uploading videos on YouTube for your career? The first step is to create a YouTube channel but the amount of YouTube users is around 122 million daily. This huge amount of daily active users also create unimaginable competition between content creators which makes it extremely hard for them to succeed. But there is hope and sure, you can most definitely make a career out of it.
However, YouTube is there to solve this problem and has a separate section to help out new video creators with its YouTube for Artists section. Keep reading this blog to know what it is in detail and how you can use this to make the most out of it.
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What is YouTube for Artists?
YouTube, the video streaming channel itself has provided budding artists with a free platform that allows them to grow their brands on YouTube and get the most out of it. On this platform, you will be able to find the guidelines on how to start your official artist channel.
Where can it be used?
The main usage of this feature, YouTube for artists, is that content creators can create an official artist channel that brings every musical piece of an artist into one place. This is an official representation of the artist on YouTube, which makes it easier for artists to manage their music and content. It is also useful for followers and fans as they get all of the content of their favorite artists in one place. In addition to that, the possibility of the artist being discovered on the video streaming platform also increases. The most interesting giveaway of this official artist channel is that there is a musical note given on YouTube that is placed after the artist's name.
Steps to get the official artist channel
Even though the steps to get an official YouTube channel is easy, however, there are some minimum requirements that the artists must meet before getting that official channel on YouTube. Let’s look at those minimum yet mandatory requirements.
If you pass these requirements, you can send an email to YouTube for an upgrade and enjoy the benefits of an official artist channel. Remember to include the links of your official releases and to the wonder and operated music channel along with the topic channel. The entire process takes at least two to four weeks to complete. However, after the succession of this process, you can finally earn money by uploading videos on YouTube.
How to create an owned and operated channel?
The first requirement is to upload the music directly to YouTube via your channel. So if you have a third-party channel where your content is being uploaded, the first step is to create and upload from your channel. There are two different kinds of channels on YouTube. One is a personal channel that can be logged in by only one person and people with no management, who are solo artists, are the perfect match for it. The other one is the brand channel which allows more than one person to log in to the account. People who are working with a team, or have multiple people managing the account are the most appropriate users for this type of account.
Topic Channel
Once you upload any official video on YouTube, it automatically generates a topic channel for you. It appears as 'artist's name - topic'. Artists can view their topic channel by searching their names on YouTube and clicking on the right-hand side of the search result. To find out whether you have a topic channel, you can search "artist's name + topic channel" on YouTube.
What are the features of an official artist channel?
An official channel gives the brand a professional look. Other than this, there are also a bunch of benefits of having an official channel and its various features. Keep on reading to know the features and benefits of having an official artist channel on YouTube.
The first feature and its advantage is that an official channel means all of your musical expressions and uploads are now available in one place. This is why when your channel is upgraded; you will immediately see an increase in the view count and subscriber count. The reason is your topic channel and your owned and operated channel and their content is merged into one which features your entire catalog, so the total number of views and subscribers are also merged into one.
There is a standard layout option on YouTube that normal artists use. In addition to new options for a channel, the layout becomes available once your channel turns into an official artist channel. It immediately gives the channel an improved look and attracts more viewership for your content, resulting in its increase. You will find a separate section, "feature video" that allows the artists to add a video on the top of your channel. In this section, you can select any video you like, even if it is not an uploaded video. Other added sections are auto-generated such as "albums" and "official music" which includes your official releases along with customizable sections. You can arrange the sections according to your liking, allowing yourself to choose the type of content you want your fans to interact with at first.
Another added advantage of official artist channel upgradation is that you will be able to manage your brand's presence on all YouTube apps. The feature Profile for Artists lets the content creators and artists upload high-resolution pictures that represent your brand as well as update your bio. You can use this to promote your channel on all YouTube apps such as the YouTube Music app, YouTube Search, playlists, etc. along with Google play music.
With the upgrade, there are also some features related to fan engagement that get unlocked. Once the upgrade has happened, people can access the community posts which allows them to create posts in form of texts, GIFs, images, polls, playlists, etc. It attracts more audience and you can engage with your fans and subscribers in a fun and far more interesting way. There are also more features, besides normal like and dislikes options, you will also get to heart react to the comments which stand out more than the like and dislike option. Fans will notice when they will get a heart on their comment, thus increasing engagement.
There is a separate app on YouTube that is called the YouTube studio app where you can see the analytics of your video and engagement once your channel gets upgraded and turns into an official artist channel. With the help of these analytics and statistics, you will be able to see where and how people are discovering your music and content so you can improve and make strategies regarding that data.
Once your channel is upgraded to an official one, YouTube allows the eligible artists to promote their tours and concerts on their videos. By enabling this option, audiences will be able to see tour dates under the video of an official release. But this feature is available in a few countries such as Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland. The artists will only be eligible if-
YouTube for artists also has a promotional feature titled 'Artist On The Rise' which highlights emerging artists. It gives them increased visibility among the audience, in the separate trending section for 24 hours, in the video streaming platform once selected. This is auto-generated by YouTube which is decided based on the view count, watch hours, and how frequently the videos are being uploaded on the platform. This feature is currently only supported in the United States.
How to manage and optimize the official artist channel
Once you get the upgrade for your channel and it becomes the official artist channel there are a few things you need to maintain to maximize the impact. Managing your profile with the help of these added advantages and features will increase your brand’s presence and visibility on YouTube.
'Feature Video' is a cool and fun feature that you can most definitely use to your advantage. With the help of this feature, you can add a welcome video or a trailer that acts as the first impression for your viewers when they land on your channel. You can even set two different trailer videos; one for the existing viewers and one for the new viewers which are even cooler.
After the upgrade to the official artist channel, automatically two features 'Music Videos' and 'Albums & Singles' are added that showcase your official release. There are other sections available to display more content on your homepages such as live streaming, popular videos, playlists, and more. With the help of these, you can increase your visibility on YouTube and you can make these edits by choosing the button for 'customize channel'. You can organize these sections according to your choice to determine the position of the sections.
With the official artist channel, you have the option to edit your profile on YouTube to make it more appealing and alluring. You can add bios and pictures that are of high resolution. You need to make it more presentable as it will appear on many other platforms along with YouTube and will help with your discoverability. However, on YouTube for artists some specifications for pictures such as-
The upgrade, YouTube for artists, also offers a thorough breakdown of how and where people are interacting with your content. This section includes the details about traffic sources which refer to the sites from where the viewers landed on the YouTube channel, demographics, geographical locations, and other useful statistics. You will get this information from 'YouTube studio' and form strategies based on that. YOu will also be able to see where you are performing well and where you need to improve. This will also help you understand your audience more and what they are liking more so you can form your strategies using that.
After getting the official artist channel you will see that YouTube has automatically added an extra tab that is for the Community by the same name. Here you can make community posts and interact with the fans about your latest release. You can also use several forms such as texts, GIFs, polls, images, etc. You can also post videos in this section to make the interaction with the fans more interesting and fun. You can select the ‘Community’ tab and select the type of content you want to share.
YouTube is a big pool of talent where the competition is extremely high and you need to do everything you can to stand out. YouTube for artists and its official artist channel can surely help you along the way to get the most out of the platform and get that digital fame you have a longing for.
