Getting your YouTube Official Artist Channel

Without an OAC, your music often lives in two places: the channel you upload to, and auto-generated topic channels created from distributed audio. An Official Artist Channel consolidates them. Your subscriber counts combine, your releases appear in an organized discography, and search results present one artist page instead of fragments.

The badge also unlocks artist-only tools: better analytics on your audience, control over the featured layout of your channel, and eligibility for YouTube's artist promotion features.

You need an active channel that you own, at least three official releases delivered to YouTube through a distributor or label, and channel content that follows YouTube's guidelines. The releases must be live on YouTube Music, which happens through your distribution deliveries.

Requests for an OAC are made through a partner: a label, a distributor, or a YouTube partner manager. Independent artists cannot file the request directly, which is exactly where a label services partner earns its place.

Request it from Support in your artist portal: choose YouTube Official Artist Channel and paste your channel and Topic channel links. If you already have the badge but a song shows on a separate Topic channel, choose Merge a Topic channel into your OAC instead.

We verify your channel ownership, confirm the three-release threshold is met from your delivered catalog, and file the OAC request on your behalf. Approval typically takes a few weeks. After the merge, we check that your subscriber counts consolidated correctly and that your discography displays cleanly.

Alongside the OAC, we manage Content ID for your eligible songs, so re-uploads and unauthorised use of your recordings generate claims and revenue instead of leakage.