An Official Artist Channel (OAC) is a YouTube channel that YouTube has marked as the official home of an artist or band. It brings together your subscribers and your content from your different YouTube channels in one place. This article explains what an OAC gives you, who can get one and how to apply through us.
In short YouTube does not accept OAC requests directly from artists. Requests must come from the artist's label or distributor. As we distribute your music, we can apply to YouTube on your behalf. |
Why get an Official Artist Channel?
Without an OAC, your music on YouTube is spread out. There is the channel you upload to yourself, the Topic channel that YouTube creates for the tracks we deliver, and possibly a channel run by a label or by Vevo. Fans can end up subscribing to any one of them.
An OAC ties all of this together:
Figure 1. An OAC combines your channels into one official channel.
- All your fans in one place: subscribers of your Topic channel, your Vevo channel (if you have one) and your existing channel are merged into your OAC. The subscribe button and subscriber count disappear from the other channels.
- Your releases appear automatically: a "Releases" section lists all of your releases, including the tracks we deliver.
- Your music videos are grouped: a "Music Videos" section automatically gathers your official music videos and Art Tracks.
- More ways to present yourself: you can pick a featured video, add your own sections and playlists, show fan "Shorts" that use your music and display your most popular songs in "Shorts".
- Concerts, merch and tickets: you can show upcoming concerts and use YouTube's ticketing and merchandise features.
- Analytics for Artists: you get access to YouTube's analytics tools for artists.
- Comments on Art Tracks: with an OAC you can turn on comments for your Art Tracks. Without one, comments on Art Tracks are always off.
Things to keep in mind
- Once your channel becomes an OAC, you may lose some features that YouTube only offers to regular channels, such as Ask Studio.
- YouTube suspends an OAC and turns it back into a regular channel if it receives a Community Guidelines strike or has content with limited features. It becomes an OAC again automatically once there are no active strikes.
Who can get an Official Artist Channel?
There are two sets of requirements: YouTube's own requirements, and ours as your distributor - you need to meet both.
YouTube's requirements
- You own and run a channel for one single artist or band, and the channel is about that artist's music.
- You have at least one official music release on YouTube that was delivered by a label or distributor. Music we deliver counts.
- Your channel follows all YouTube policies: the Community Guidelines, the Terms of Service and copyright rules.
- You have a connection with YouTube through a partner. This can be the YouTube Partner Programme, a YouTube Partner Manager, or a label or distributor that works with YouTube.
YouTube also recommends that at least one video on the channel is public. There is no minimum number of subscribers or views.
Our requirements
We only send a request to YouTube when we are confident it will be accepted. That is why our requirements are stricter than YouTube's:
Requirement | What this means |
Six months with us | You have been our digital distribution client for at least six months. |
A clean history | During that time there have been no copyright claims against your content, you have acted in good faith on our platform and you have not sent an excessive number of support requests. |
Three tracks delivered | We have delivered at least three of your tracks to YouTube. They are visible on YouTube as Art Tracks. |
Three music videos | Your channel has at least three videos about you and your music. Ideally, a few of them are official music videos of songs that are also available as Art Tracks. |
The right channel name | The channel name contains the full artist or band name. |
A complete "About" section | The "About" section has a short description of you as an artist and links to your social media and to your music on streaming services. |
No violations | The channel has no YouTube policy violations, strikes or warnings. |
Step 1: Set up your artist channel
If you do not have a YouTube channel for the artist yet, create one, making sure that it meets the requirements above and adheres to the following guidelines:
- Use the full artist or band name as the channel name.
- Upload at least three videos about the artist and the music, including a few official music videos.
- Write a short artist bio in the "About" section and add links to your social media and streaming profiles.
High view and subscriber numbers are not required - a tidy, active channel matters more.
Step 2: Find your channel IDs
For your application, we need links to your channels that contain the channel ID. A channel ID is a code of letters and numbers that always starts with UC. Links that use the channel name (for example youtube.com/@artistname) are not enough.
Figure 2. A channel link with the channel ID.
To find a channel ID, open the channel on YouTube, go to the About section, select Share channel and then Copy channel ID. You can also find your own channel ID in YouTube Studio under Settings, Channel, Advanced settings.
Step 3: Apply through us
Figure 3. How an OAC request travels from you to YouTube.
Send an email to our support team (support@the-source.eu) with the subject "OAC request" and include the following:
- Your request to upgrade the channel to an Official Artist Channel.
- Your name.
- The email address of the Google account that the channel is linked to.
- The artist name, if it is different from your own name.
- The label name.
- The link to the artist channel you want upgraded, with the channel ID (starting with UC).
- The link to the artist's Topic channel (the channel called "Artist Name - Topic" that holds your Art Tracks), with the channel ID.
- Links to at least three Art Tracks that we delivered, for example your most popular tracks.
Please do not contact YouTube yourself YouTube only processes OAC requests that come from a label or distributor. A request you send to YouTube yourself will not be considered and can slow things down. If anything is unclear, contact us instead. |
Step 4: Wait for the result
Please be patient. Reviewing an OAC request takes YouTube a long time, and we cannot speed it up. If YouTube approves the request, the OAC features do not appear all at once. It can take a while before your Art Tracks, releases and subscribers are fully brought together on your channel.
- Is something wrong with your Art Tracks or your Topic channel? -
- Are there tracks that don't show up on your OAC? -
See our article Art Tracks and Topic channels on YouTube.
More information about YouTube