Official Artist Channels (OACs)

How can I get an OAC? What is an official artist channel?

Kirsten Bennett avatar
Written by Kirsten Bennett
Updated over a week ago

Official Artist Channels


Do you have multiple channels on YouTube?

Identity Music can help combine your channels into one verified account so that your artists know where to subscribe to listen to your music. Your Official Artist Channel (also known as OAC) can be a combination of your music in the form of both albums and videos.

How do I know if I currently have an Official Artist Channel?

Official Artist Channel for musician Ozlig

When you have an Official Artist Channel you will have a musical note next to your channel name.

What is the benefit of Official Artist Channels?

1. You are able to customise your page and organise your discography into albums and official music videos.

2. You are able to generate playlists of your content to focus your music to key audience types.

3. You get to choose what to highlight in the “featured” video slot. (This is great for promoting your newest release)

4. Your fans know where to find you! Where they can engage with your music and you as an artist.

What do I need to be eligible for an Official Artist Channel?

  • Own and operate a YouTube channel that represents one artist or band

  • Have at least three official releases on YouTube distributed by a music distributor

  • Have no policy violations on your channel

  • GET IDENTITY MUSIC TO APPLY ON YOUR BEHALF

What do I get within my OAC?

YouTube For Artists

Community

The community section of YouTube for Artists helps you connect with your fans more than ever. Community posts allow you to connect with fans through text (with Polls, pictures, GIFs and more), live videos or view your channel’s subscriber list.

Live

Get ready to go live with the world. Embrace your fans and encourage them to embrace your music by offering a sneaky peek behind the scenes. Ensure your fans know about your latest release by talking to them directly through a live chat!

Ticketing

Promote your tours and sell tickets. You are able to link us Ticketmaster or Eventbrite to help you sell tickets to your fans when they are listening to your music digitally. You are now able to feature your tour dates within your video watch pages.

YouTube Analytics

You are able to breakdown your analytics based on: Reach, Engagement, Audience and Revenue as well as:

  • Typical performance: A comparison of your latest video to your channel’s typical performance.

  • Top videos: Your recent videos ranked by views.

  • Realtime: Your performance over the last 48 hours or 60 minutes.

  • Latest videos: Your performance from your 10 latest videos.

*At the video level, you’ll see key moments for audience retention and your Real-time report.

For more information: https://artists.youtube.com/

How do I get an Official Artist Channel? Contact Identity Music

If you are not already distributing with Identity Music please apply here:

If you are already distributing with Identity Music please contact your account manager.

YouTube is an incredible platform for all types of creators, including musicians. Making the most of your YouTube channel can be essential when it comes to communicating with your audience, promoting your new releases and showing off your cool visuals to support a new track.

Identity Music doesn’t distribute directly to your main YouTube page, giving you the freedom to make your own decisions and get hands-on with your own content. However, we are able to provide a range of services that can complement your YouTube channel - including upgrading your channel to the best options for artists, an Official Artist Channel. These channels can be quickly identified by the musical note icon that displays next to your channel name when searched, and at the top of your main channel.


Official Artist Channels (OACs)

Official Artist Channels (OACs) allow you to easily manage and display every single piece of your content on YouTube, whether that be videos on your main channel, music videos on your VEVO channel, or even music delivered by your distributor to your YouTube Music profile (hint - your YouTube Music content is available through the main YouTube service too, in the form of a Topic channel!)

By upgrading your channel to an OAC, YouTube will unite all of these different channels and profiles under one main page, giving you access to new shelves on your homepage to display the unified content, as well as a feature video at the top of your page that will play when viewers visit your channel.

Not only does an OAC unify all your content, but it will also give you access to additional features such as displaying concert dates and direct links to trusted tickets, providing you with a simple way to promote your live shows and boost the audiences come showtime! You will also now have access to detailed analytics within YouTube Studio. You will be able to see detailed information regarding watch time, total views, unique viewers, real-time activity for the last 48 hours or even the last 60 minutes. You can filter the results for these statistics to show data from just your OAC, or include data from your other VEVO and Topic channels that have been linked to your OAC.

There are some great resources provided by Google available online regarding OACs - check out this page if you’d like to learn more about the features available and the benefits of upgrading your channel to an OAC. https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/7336634?hl=en-GB

Our client management team would be happy to provide some information about the differences between YouTube Music, Topic Channels, as well as VEVO channels (and how to apply for one for free through Identity Music).

Want to distribute your music with us? Submit your application here or contact us by clicking on the support chat button on the website. (Video below to show how).

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