YouTube Music app FAQ for YouTube partners & creators
YouTube Music makes it easy for your fans to connect with your music. It also helps artists like you find audiences and earn revenue for the content that you're already creating.
YouTube Music app users who have a YouTube Music Premium membership will also have access to benefits like background play, ad-free videos and the ability to download music to watch or listen to offline for up to 30 days on mobile – helping you get more views. Learn more about how premium YouTube memberships benefit you as a creator.
Questions about YouTube Music
Is YouTube Music free?Your fans can enjoy their favourite tracks, albums and artists with YouTube Music for free. Or they can use it with a YouTube Music Premium membership to download ad-free videos and listen to music offline, in the background or without loading video. Learn more about getting started with YouTube Music.
No, you do not have to pay to keep your content on YouTube, in YouTube Music Premium or YouTube Music. Your videos are automatically visible to users on ad-supported YouTube, as well as through a paid membership to YouTube Music Premium.
The revenue from the paid membership provides a new source of revenue for artists like you. YouTube Music Premium members can also download your music videos to watch offline on mobile and play them in the background – helping you get more views.
Music is one of the most popular content categories on YouTube, and much like families and gamers use YouTube differently, so do music lovers.
With that in mind, we've developed a dedicated YouTube Music app to help fans more easily discover the breadth and diversity of music content on YouTube and connect them to the artists that they already know and love.
As a YouTube built just for music, YouTube Music lets fans watch and listen to a nearly endless catalogue in an app designed for music discovery. It helps fans more easily discover the breadth and diversity of music content on YouTube and connect to artists like you.
YouTube has unique music content that your fans won't find anywhere else:
- New artists, classic favourites and everything in between
- Official music videos, full albums, remixes, covers and more
- Classic recordings and videos that span decades
YouTube Music is an experience beyond listening. Music fans also get:
- All the sights, sounds and power of video
- Concert footage and live recordings
- Access to global music moments
YouTube Music is free to download and use. Users can also use it with a YouTube Music Premium membership to get ad-free videos and download music to listen to offline, in the background or without loading video.
Thanks to your music videos, remixes, covers and more, YouTube is the best place to discover music from artists all over the world. Because of this, we believe that fans will be interested in using YouTube Music Premium's membership benefits to access your content in more ways.
We know that people enjoy music in many different ways so our subscription services give users more choice. YouTube Music Premium members get subscription access to Google Play Music. Similarly, Google Play Music subscribers get a YouTube Music Premium membership. Note that both Google Play Music and YouTube Music Premium must be available in a user's location for this to work.
Your content & YouTube Music
Will my content be available on YouTube Music?YouTube Music shows content that our system and our partners have identified as appropriate for a music experience – and we're adding more content all the time. In most cases, you don't need to do anything to get your music content in the app.
Learn more about how we determine what goes in YouTube Music.
We're collaborating with our music partners to identify content appropriate for a music-only experience. The content is from record labels, artists, music aggregators, music publishers and other music content providers and includes:
- Official/premium music videos
- User-generated song content
- Art tracks
Identifying content appropriate for a music-only experience is an ongoing process. We're working hard to get this content into YouTube Music quickly so that your music fans can watch all the music videos that they love.
Your fans can search for your songs, videos and albums on YouTube Music. If you have a big enough presence on the web, you may even have an auto-generated topic channel where fans can learn more about you as an artist.
YouTube Music app users who have a YouTube Music Premium membership can also get ad-free videos, download music to enjoy offline on mobile, listen without video and play music while using another app or with their screen off.
Yes, of course. Nothing is changing on ad-supported YouTube and creators will continue to earn revenue through ads. In addition to this, YouTube Music Premium will provide a secondary revenue stream.
You'll continue to earn revenue through ads on YouTube and the free, ad-supported YouTube Music app.
In addition, YouTube Music Premium membership fees will provide a secondary revenue stream based on how much members watch your content. As with our advertising business, the majority of the revenue will go to creators.
Yes. Views on downloaded videos in YouTube Music will be recorded and incorporated just like online views the next time that a user logs in online.
Your deal with Vevo is not impacted and Vevo will continue to provide your content for the ad-supported service.
We've worked directly with your label so you can now earn both ad-supported revenue and YouTube Music Premium membership-based revenue. Reach out to your label if you have additional questions.
We want to make sure that fans who choose to pay for an ad-free experience with YouTube Music Premium can watch all of your videos. Imagine if a fan who wants to watch your videos, without the interruption of ads, pays for the experience upgrade and then finds out that some of your videos are no longer available.
In order to unlock new YouTube Music Premium and YouTube Music features, deliver a great experience for your fans and offer you an additional revenue stream, we're asking all partners to ensure that their content is available for both free and paying users.