Use your artist name as your channel name
Effective channel names can help fans easily find your official channel in search results and your official videos across YouTube. Poor channel names can make discovery of your channel and your videos more difficult for fans and potentially have a negative impact on your analytics. Consider using your official artist name, band name, or the name of your newest release for your OAC.
For example, a good channel name for the band Big Light would be Big Light. Try to use the name that’s on your newest release.
For example, a good channel name for the band Big Light would be Big Light. Try to use the name that’s on your newest release.
Best practices for writing your channel name
Follow these best practices to make sure your channel name is improved for fans on YouTube:
- Use proper capitalization: For example, don’t use "big light" or "BIG LIGHT", unless your brand explicitly uses capitalization as part of the styling.
- Use proper spacing: For example, don’t use "BigLight", unless your brand explicitly uses concatenated names.
- Avoid extra words: For example, don’t add words like "Official", "TV", "Channel", "YouTube", or "Productions" to your name.
- Choose a primary language: If your audience spans many languages, choose one language for your name. You can add alternative translations that will show up depending on the fan's language preferences.
Note: Changing your channel name will also change your name across other Google products, unless you've transferred your channel to a Brand Account. A Brand Account will allow you to have a name that only applies to YouTube. It also allows you to give channel permissions to other people on your team.
Notifications
Once fans subscribe, they may also start getting notifications when you publish new videos. By default, we'll only send highlights from the channel.
If you have an Official Artist Channel, viewers will only see notifications originating from the official channel in their subscriptions feed.
The type of notification they'll get from the Official Artist Channel depends on the notification preferences they've had for your other channels. Preferences from a topic channel do not affect notification settings for the Official Artist Channel.
If you have an Official Artist Channel, viewers will only see notifications originating from the official channel in their subscriptions feed.
The type of notification they'll get from the Official Artist Channel depends on the notification preferences they've had for your other channels. Preferences from a topic channel do not affect notification settings for the Official Artist Channel.
Learn how viewer settings affect notifications
- If viewers set bell notifications on the OAC, they'll get bell notifications regardless of their setting on other channels.
- If viewers set highlights on the OAC, they'll get highlights regardless of their setting on other channels.
- If a viewer chose notification settings for your existing channel and then subscribed to your OAC, their notification settings will carry over to the OAC.
View YouTube Analytics for Artists
If you're an artist on YouTube and you have an Official Artist Channel, you can use the YouTube Studio app to see analytics. Analytics will show your data across all of the channels where your music resides (for example, artist owned & operated channel, topic channel, and VEVO).
Learn more about YouTube Analytics for Artists.
Update your artist discography
If you notice errors within your discography, such as incorrect album titles or song metadata, get in touch with your label or distributor.