There is no upload button for artists in YouTube Music. Songs get onto YouTube Music through distribution, and when they arrive, YouTube turns each one into an Art Track. Here is the route from your files to a listener's phone, and what you will see along the way.
How a release gets onto YouTube Music
YouTube Music's catalogue of official songs comes from labels and distributors. When you submit a release, you hand over three things: the audio, the cover and the metadata, meaning titles, artist names, credits, the release date and the codes that identify each track. The distributor delivers that package to YouTube together with the other platforms.
On its side, YouTube does three jobs:
- It matches the artist name to an existing artist, or creates a new one.
- It creates an Art Track for each song: your audio with the cover as a still image.
- It places the release on the artist's Topic channel and in YouTube Music as a single or album.
None of this needs a YouTube account on your side. An artist who has never opened YouTube still gets a Topic channel after the first release.
What an Art Track is and why YouTube makes one
An Art Track is the official audio version of a song on YouTube. It looks like a plain video: the cover, the track title and a short description saying the track was provided to YouTube by the distributor and auto-generated.
YouTube needs it because YouTube Music has to have one clean, official "song" for every track it receives. That song goes into albums, radio, personal mixes and search, with the right metadata and rights information attached. A music video can't do this job for everyone. Many songs never get a video, and videos often have spoken intros, skits or a different edit.
So when someone presses play on your single in YouTube Music, adds it to a playlist or hears it in a mix, they are almost always listening to the Art Track.
Distribution versus uploading a video yourself
The two routes do different things, and they work best together.
Through distribution
- The song becomes an Art Track on your Topic channel.
- It appears in YouTube Music as a song in your discography.
- Title, cover and artist name come from your release metadata, and you can't edit them on YouTube.
- Income is reported through your distributor, like other platforms.
Uploading to your own channel
- The upload is a video on your channel, with the title, thumbnail and description you choose.
- It appears on YouTube and in the video section of YouTube Music, but not as an album track.
- Income comes through your channel's monetisation, if the channel qualifies.
The normal setup is an Art Track from distribution plus a music video on your channel. What causes trouble is uploading the bare audio with a still cover to your own channel "so it's on YouTube". It duplicates the Art Track, splits plays and, if the release is in Content ID, your own upload can get claimed. On CULT's Professional Artist plan, eligible releases are added to Content ID and whitelist requests are sent for your own channel and the channels you work with, after the rights are checked. Approval is not automatic, so set this up before you upload.
What you see after release day
Delivery to YouTube follows the same review and processing as other platforms, so timing depends on how quickly everything is approved and processed. In the CULT portal you can follow the status of each platform, including YouTube.
Once the release is live, check three places:
- YouTube search. Your song appears as a video from "Your Name - Topic". If this is your first release, the Topic channel is new.
- YouTube Music. Your artist page lists the release under songs, singles or albums. The page may show a different image from your own YouTube channel at first.
- Your own channel. Nothing changes here yet. Your channel and the Topic channel are still separate.
If a track is missing from search on day one, give it a little time before you raise it. Search and artist pages can update later than the release itself.
Connecting the Art Track, your videos and your channel
Three things make the picture tidy:
- Consistent names. Use exactly the same artist name and song title on the release and on your music video. YouTube links an official video to its Art Track more reliably when they match.
- An Official Artist Channel. It merges your Topic channel and your own channel into one, with your releases and videos together. YouTube decides on each request, and a channel with regular uploads helps.
- A song and video pair in YouTube Music. When YouTube links your official video to the matching Art Track, listeners can switch between the song and the video while it plays.
Common problems and what to do
The release is live everywhere except YouTube Music
Processing times differ between platforms. Check the delivery status first, and if YouTube still shows nothing after several days, ask your distributor.
The Art Track landed on another artist's Topic channel
This usually happens when two artists share a name. Send your distributor your artist channel and Topic channel links so the release can be moved and future ones go to the right place.
The cover or title on the Art Track is wrong
The Art Track mirrors the delivered metadata. Fix it at the source: correct the release with your distributor and have it delivered again. An update can take a while to show on YouTube.