Helping music artists make the most of YouTube

Remember your first guitar lesson? Or your 1,000th subscriber on YouTube? What about when you learned YouTube Analytics to understand what your fans watch the most? 

Making great music is just like making great YouTube videos. It requires creativity, passion and the right resources, and that’s why we’re helping artists like you make the most of YouTube with the launch of YouTube for Artists. This initiative will give you two things: the tools to best connect with fans, and promotional programs to help you get discovered and grow. 

YouTube for Artists...like you

On a new YouTube for Artists site, you have a variety of powerful resources, everything you need to take your latest slow jam or dance track to the next level. Here you’ll find tips on how to best get discovered, lessons on engaging with your fans beyond your music videos, a guide to making money on YouTube, and more. 

You can also learn about how you can sell merch and promote your shows directly within your video through cards, and have fans directly contribute money to your channel through Fan Funding. These features give you even more ways to grow both your audience and your revenue on YouTube.

Success on YouTube leads to greater overall success as an artist, and on YouTube for Artists you can learn about all the current programs we have to make that happen. That includes getting your YouTube views to lead to charting on Billboard, airtime on SiriusXM and NRJ in France, and free production resources at our YouTube Space locations around the world.

We’re also working on a new data tool for artists that will show you where your fans are located at the city level, as well as show the total number of views from your official music videos and fan uploads through Content ID. This will help you figure out where to promote your next single to your fans, the best time zone to release your next video or where you might route your next tour. And if you’re at SXSW Music this week, we’ll be hosting YouTube at Coppertank to show a preview of this data tool, as well as having live performances from emerging artists and trailblazing artists on YouTube. 

Making center stage big enough for everyone

We want to do more than just give you tools to succeed—we want to help more and more fans discover your channel and videos. So we’re working on new ways to celebrate and promote the wide range of artists on YouTube. 

We’re starting with the YouTube Music Awards, where we’re putting a spotlight on the artists who are growing the fastest, engaging with their audience the most, and helping define what music means on YouTube. You can learn more about this year’s top 50 artists at the YouTube Music Awards channel, and stay tuned on March 23 @ 10 a.m. PT for special music video performances from some of this year’s winners and other emerging artists. And if you’re a YouTube Music Award winner—congratulations!

The YTMAs are just the beginning, as we’re working on even more ways to help you make the most of YouTube.

Marly Ellis, Global Head of Artist Marketing, recently watched “Introducing YouTube for Artists.”

Make your videos even more interactive with cards

As a creator, you’ve probably been using annotations to engage with your viewers for years. But one of the things you’ve told us is that you need more flexibility with the info you share through annotations, and—most importantly—you need it to work across screens and especially on mobile. That’s why today we’re introducing cards.

You can think of cards like an evolution of annotations. They can inform your viewers about other videos, merch, playlists, websites and more. They look as beautiful as your videos, are available anytime during the video and yes, they finally work on mobile. 

Right now, you can choose from six types of cards: Merchandise, Fundraising, Video, Playlist, Associated Website and Fan Funding. You’ll find a new “Cards” tab in your Video Editor to create and edit them at any time.

Because cards work across mobile and desktop and give you more flexibility to share what you want, our goal is to have these eventually replace annotations. But this will happen only once they can do everything annotations can do today, and more. Until then, we’re looking forward to your feedback on cards, including what you want them to do for you in the future. 

Check out these Help Center articles if you want to find out more. 

Muli Salem, Product Manager, recently watched “Karl Johan: Limbo time!”

A new way to see and share your world with 360-degree video

You share incredible videos with your fans every second of the day, but what if you could share even more in that video? Like, sharing the entire moment that you’re filming?

You could let viewers see the stage and the crowd of your concert, the sky and the ground as you wingsuit glide, or you could even have a choose-your-own-adventure video where people see a different story depending on where they look. Only you know what’s possible. That’s why today we are starting to support 360-degree video uploads on YouTube, to continue giving you all the best resources to connect with your viewers.

People can watch your videos on the existing YouTube app for Android, and by moving the phone or tablet around they’ll see all the different angles while the video plays. They can do the same on youtube.com or embedded videos on Chrome by using the mouse to drag the point of view around, and we’re working to bring this to iPhone, iPad and other devices soon. 

Creating and uploading 360-degree videos on YouTube

To make it easy for you to create and upload 360-degree videos to YouTube, we’ve been working with companies across the industry. Bublcam, Giroptic’s 360cam, IC Real Tech’s Allie, Kodak’s SP360 and RICOH THETA are 360-degree video cameras compatible with YouTube that are available today or are coming soon. You can find more technical information on the video format, along with a script you need to run on the video file to insert the correct metadata. We’re working to make this automatic, but in the meantime, this script will make sure your video uploads to YouTube as a 360-degree video. 

If you’re around the YouTube Space L.A., our Creator Tech team is also hosting a technology showcase from now through April, where you can try out these new cameras and learn new techniques from our staff.

Remember when the vantage point of the fisheye lens blew your mind? Now let’s see what you can do with every possible angle at your recording fingertips.  

Sanjeev Verma, product manager, recently watched “Tomorrowland 2015 | 360 degrees of Madness”.

Separate fan-building fiction from fact with the Creator Academy boot camp

If you’re looking to build lasting relationships with your fans, sign up for the new Engage your audience boot camp from the YouTube Creator Academy. There’s no gym clothes or push-ups: it’s a free online course made up of lessons from top creators and YouTube experts, running March 16-27, 2015.

This course will teach you how to:

• Develop a strong connection with your viewers in order to build a loyal community of fans
• Understand who your audience is and what they like, so that you can think about videos that appeal to them
• Broaden your fanbase and extend your reach beyond YouTube with social media, blogs, and other communities
• Use YouTube Analytics to your advantage in building your subscriber base.

To sign up, choose the language that’s best for you below.

English Italian

French German

Arabic Spanish

Russian Portuguese

Polish Thai

This is one of many resources we provide to help creators thrive on YouTube. Find more lessons and courses at the YouTube Creator Academy.

See you at boot camp!

Wendy Leicht, Instructional Designer, recently watched Arizona Llama Chase.

Mystery solved: What happens when you upload a video with music

Great videos deserve a great soundtrack. That’s why we work with artists and music companies around the world to bring great music to YouTube. It’s why we’ve developed Content ID to empower you to feature, curate and celebrate the music you love in your YouTube videos.

But until now there was no way to know what would happen if you used a specific track until after you hit upload. Starting today, you can search the YouTube Audio Library to determine how using a particular track in your video will affect it on YouTube, specifically if it will stay live on YouTube or if any restrictions apply. You can uncross those uploading fingers now!

Let’s say you made a video with the new hit from Charli XCX. Search Boom Clap in the Audio Library and you’ll see the screen below, telling you what will happen if you upload a video with this song.



If you plan to monetize your video, you can download thousands of songs and sound effects from the YouTube Audio Library to use in your videos without restrictions, for free, forever. Need the perfect Morning Walk song for your back to school video, or an Emergency Siren for your action scene? We gotcha covered.

Tim Grow, Product Manager, recently watched “The Bizarre State of Copyright.”

Want your URL to match your channel?

When Tati joined YouTube, her username was GlamLifeGuru, which made her channel’s URL youtube.com/GlamLifeGuru. But as her channel grew, her fans embraced “Tati” as her brand. So her channel web address -- often the quickest way back for her fans to watch more of her content -- didn’t match her channel name and branding.

To make sure creators like Tati and all of you have a consistent place for new and existing fans to find you, we’re introducing an easier way to pick custom URLs that match your channel names and branding.

Starting this week, if you’re a creator with at least 500 subscribers, you may receive emails and in-product notifications if your updated custom URL is ready to claim. You’ll see several options waiting for you that are based on your channel’s description, Google identity and associated websites. When you want to pick your URL, all you have to do is follow these instructions. Once you pick one, the new URL will automatically direct fans to your channel.

Don’t have 500 subscribers yet? Try these tips to spur your growth. And don’t worry, in the meantime your regular URL will continue to connect people to your YouTube channel.

Laura Rapin, Product Specialist, recently watched Lemonade - Alex Boye’

What YouTube’s new music features mean for artists

As artists, creators, composers, remixers and directors, you’ve been at the forefront of making YouTube the ultimate home for music.  After nine years of unforgettable music moments you’ve created -- Kutiman, Beliebers, “Gangnam Style” and countless others -- we’re more committed than ever to making the music experience on YouTube better for you and your fans. That’s why today we’re launching new music features that will help your fans discover and enjoy more of your music and rolling out the beta of our new subscription service, YouTube Music Key.

Starting today, all music fans will see a new home just for music on their YouTube app for Android, iOS and on YouTube.com. The music homepage will make it easier for fans to find their favorite music videos (including yours!) and discover new ones through personalized recommendations, trending playlists and playlists to perfectly fit their mood. What’s more, starting in the USA, UK, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Finland and Ireland, we’re launching the beta of our new music subscription service, YouTube Music Key, which gives subscribers access to ad-free music, background play and offline viewing. For artists, we believe the easier it is for fans to find and enjoy your music on YouTube -- anytime, anywhere -- the more opportunity you’ll have to build your fan bases and make money from your music.

If you’re wondering if your music is included in the YouTube Music Key beta, you should talk with your record label or distributor. If you're an artist sharing your music directly through YouTube and you’re interested in being a part of the subscription service, you can let us know with this form. We’re excited about this new music experience on YouTube, and we’re continuing to bring on more artists in the coming months.

With all these new features, all our best practices still apply for growing your audience on YouTube. So keep creating great music, curating awesome playlists and mixtapes, and continue to share your music with the world. Because if we’ve learned anything over the past nine years, it’s that your creativity is limitless.

The YouTube Music team recently watched “Michael Jackson - Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' - YouTube Mix.”