What are YouTube Topic channels?
We often get the same question from our users: what is this YouTube Topic channel that has been created for my music and what should I do with it? Can I update the channel? And is there a way to merge it with my own artist channel? We cover all your questions in this guide.
To put it simply: when you start delivering your music to YouTube (Music) via a music distributor like Make Waves, YouTube will automatically generate a topic channel for your artist. The channel name will be the artist name followed by - Topic. See an example below:
To make your releases available on the YouTube Music streaming service, YouTube will automatically take the audio from your release and the artwork to create an Art Track video. Your Topic channel can be seen as a collection of all the releases you've distributed through that particular distributor.
- It's not possible to customise the Topic channel that is generated by YouTube, or get access to it. Topic channels are automatically generated and are completely separate from your own artist channel.
- It is, however, possible to request an Official Artist Channel (OAC), if you meet the necessary requirements. By upgrading to an Official Artist Channel, you’ll be able to merge your auto-generated Topic channel with your artist channel. Your releases will then show on your OAC under their own separate 'Releases' tab. See an example below.
- It is possible to receive revenue from the plays on your Topic channel videos. You're paid for each monetised play - a monetised play is when YouTube displays an ad on the video, or when a YouTube Music subscriber watches or listens to the video. You can find more information on your YouTube streaming and revenue data in your Make Waves account, once your releases go live and start generating plays (in Analytics and your Wallet).
We have a separate guide that explains how to request an Official Artist Channel via the Make Waves Support team. Click here to be redirected to this article.
If you have any other questions, feel free to reach out to support@makewaves.fm