YouTube allows artists to combine their content from multiple channels into a centralized location - a YouTube Official Artist Channel (OAC). Your OAC automatically programs your music catalog on two new shelves, including your music videos, songs, and albums. You can learn all the specifics on YouTube's dedicated OAC support hub, but below you’ll find the info you need to know to get started with TuneCore and YouTube OAC. Additionally, these resources cover everything you should need to grow your Official Artist Channel on YouTube--from optimizing your channel and videos to activating around your next release to tracking your performance.
OAC Basics
- An OAC merges views, subscribers, and videos from an artist’s Topic Channels and Vevo Channel (if applicable) into their primary owned and operated (O&O) artist channel.
- An OAC can only contain one single O&O channel. If you have more than one O&O channel (non-Topic or Vevo) it cannot be merged into your OAC.
- Your Topic channel may still exist after creating your OAC, but your Art Track videos will be accessible in the OAC.
- Artists will continue to be able to manage their O&O channel once it becomes an OAC.
When a channel becomes an OAC, the following features become available:
- Discography section (organized by album)
- Official Music Videos section
- Featured video slot (choose one video to highlight on the channel)
- Link to merchandise retailers (what is this?)
What are the requirements for claiming my OAC?
You cannot claim your OAC if you do not meet ALL of the below eligibility requirements.
- You must be on a paid Unlimited Plan - clients on the New Artist plan will not be able to claim an OAC
- The artist must be credited as Main/Primary artist at the release level. Featured artists or artists credited as a main artist on only one track on an album are not eligible
- Own and operate a YouTube channel that represents only one artist or band, NO LABEL CHANNELS
- Have at least 15 subscribers to your O&O channel (or 50 if you're using tunecore.in)
- Have at least 1 official art track live on YouTube that was delivered and distributed by TuneCore
- Have no policy violations on your YouTube channel
- Owned and Operated channel must have existing public video uploads - at least 1 music video is preferred
- Any additional requirements set forth by YouTube that we cannot share to protect exclusive review processes
I already claimed my OAC through TuneCore. Do I need to do it again?
If you have an OAC you previously claimed through TuneCore's portal, you still need to reconnect it to your account by following the steps below!
How do I request my OAC?
- Log in to your account and scroll down to Your Artist Accounts
- Click the YouTube Official Artist Channel box (already logged in? Just click here!)
- Read the instructions, select your artist name from the dropdown menu, then click Claim Your YouTube OAC
- You’ll be directed to a Google site to authenticate your Google account and select your O&O channel. Make sure it's the Google account associated with your preferred YouTube channel!
- Once you authenticate, we’ll redirect you back to TuneCore for you to review and confirm your request.
- Your request should be processed within 2-3 weeks
Why does it say I don't have any artists eligible for OAC?
The "Your account does not have an artist eligible for YouTube OAC" message means you've either already claimed all of your available OACs, or your account does not have an artist that meets the eligibility requirements at this time.
Your account's OACs will be listed on this page under the "Your Official Artist Channels" heading.