What’s an Official Artist Channel?

An Official Artist Channel (OAC) is a type of channel designed specifically for musicians. It consolidates your music and content into one unified channel, making it easier for fans to discover and interact with your work. Here's everything you need to know about Official Artist Channels:

What Are the Benefits of an Official Artist Channel?

An Official Artist Channel helps you centralize your presence on YouTube. Your music distributed to YouTube as well as the videos you upload on your own channel can be grouped under your official artist profile, making it easier for fans to discover your content.

Your Official Artist Channel will display a music note icon next to the channel name, identifying it as the official channel of a music artist.

With everything organized in one place, fans can more easily find your releases, videos, and playlists. You can manage your channel branding, curate playlists, and interact directly with your audience.

An Official Artist Channel also gives you access to artist-focused analytics in YouTube Studio, helping you track the performance of your music and better understand your audience.

What are the requirements?

To be eligible for an Official Artist Channel, you must:

• Have an active iMusician subscription

• Have at least one release distributed via iMusician

• Own and manage a YouTube channel

• Have uploaded at least one music video (music-related content — not just any public video)

• Have an Artist – Topic channel generated by YouTube

• Have no active policy violations on your YouTube channel
  
  

What if I don’t have an Artist – Topic channel yet?

If you don’t have an Artist – Topic channel yet, you can still submit your request by providing your EAN/UPC code. In this case, we will first request the creation of your Artist – Topic channel before submitting your Official Artist Channel application to YouTube.

How can I apply?

If you meet all the requirements listed above, please contact our Artist & Label Relations team via your iMusician dashboard by opening a “YouTube Official Artist Channel Request” ticket.

You will then receive the Official Artist Channel request form along with instructions on how to proceed.

How long does it take?

After your request has been submitted to YouTube, the approval process generally takes 1–12 weeks.

Please note that the review is handled entirely by YouTube, and processing times may vary.