YouTube and Shorts

Why YouTube matters for Indian artists

For many listeners in India, YouTube is the first place they go to hear a song, to replay it and to share it. It's also where your music can earn from other people's videos, through Content ID. An artist who only thinks about Spotify is missing a large part of their audience.

The three kinds of YouTube presence

Getting an Official Artist Channel

YouTube's criteria:

• You own and run a single artist's or band's channel focused on your music.
• You have at least one official release on YouTube, delivered by a distributor or label.
• Your channel follows YouTube's policies.
• And at least one of: you're in the YouTube Partner Program, you work with a YouTube Partner Manager, you're part of a label network that does, or your distributor is in YouTube's directory of music partners.

YouTube recommends having at least one public video on the channel besides your official release. Ask your distributor to request it.

Once approved, subscribers from your channels are merged, your music is organised in one place, and you get Analytics for Artists, plus merch and ticketing features.

Content ID: getting paid when others use your song

Content ID matches your recordings in other people's videos and Shorts. Your distributor can set it up so you earn a share of ad revenue from those videos, or so they're blocked or tracked.

• Ask your distributor whether Content ID is included, and what share they keep.
• Never claim music you don't fully own, such as songs with uncleared samples or beats you've licensed non-exclusively. Wrong claims can get your account penalised.
• Whitelist your own channel and any partners so their videos aren't claimed.

Shorts

Shorts are YouTube's vertical videos. Square or vertical videos up to three minutes, uploaded after 15 October 2024, count as Shorts.

For musicians, Shorts work much like Reels: hook first, your song as the audio, captions on screen. You can usually repurpose your Instagram Reels, but upload a version without Instagram's watermark.

When your song is on YouTube through your distributor, it can be available in the Shorts sound library, so fans can make their own Shorts with it. Encourage them to.

An upload plan for each release

1. Before release: a teaser Short and a premiere scheduled for release day.
2. Release day: an official video. If you don't have a music video, a lyric video or visualiser is fine.
3. Weeks 1 to 4: two or three Shorts a week using the song: performance, story, behind-the-scenes, fan reactions.
4. Later: a live or acoustic version, which also brings listeners back to the original.

Titles, descriptions and thumbnails

• Title format: Artist Name – Song Title (Official Video). Keep it consistent across releases.
• Description: the story in two lines, links to streaming, credits, lyrics, and your socials.
• Thumbnail: a clear face or image that works at a small size. Avoid tiny text.

Earning from YouTube

There are two separate streams of money:

1. Content ID revenue through your distributor, from your music being used in videos.
2. YouTube Partner Program revenue from ads on your own videos and Shorts, once your channel qualifies. The bar is 1,000 subscribers plus either 4,000 qualified watch hours on public long-form videos in the last 12 months, or 10 million qualified Shorts views in the last 90 days. YouTube has announced updates to the programme from 1 February 2027, so check the current rules before you plan around them.

Your checklist

1. Check your Topic channel exists and your Art Tracks are correct.
2. Ask your distributor for an Official Artist Channel, and whether Content ID is set up.
3. Upload at least a lyric video or visualiser for every single.
4. Post Shorts using your song for four weeks after release.
5. Check Analytics for Artists monthly. See Module 8.