Rebrand YouTube Official Artist Channel to reflect a updated artist name?

Let me explain my situation, which is a bit complicated. I hope you can help me understand it better.

I have two music projects, with two different artist names. To simplify things, let’s call them:

  • ARTIST-1 (original music)
  • ARTIST-2 (covers)

ARTIST-2 is recent. Until recently, only ARTIST-1 existed, and all my productions were lumped together there, indiscriminately.

So, on all distribution channels (Spotify, Tidal, Apple Music, YouTube, etc.), only ARTIST-1 existed.

Now I am about to release music under both names, correctly distributing it to the right channels.

For platforms such as Spotify, Tidal, etc., I don’t think there will be a problem, because:

  • ARTIST-1 will release under the existing artist name

  • ARTIST-2 will be a newly created artist name

The problem arises exclusively for YouTube, because the ARTIST-1 channel contains almost exclusively videos and music by ARTIST-2, which I don’t want to lose (by re-uploading to a new channel, I would lose views, comments, and followers).

So I decided to completely rebrand the ARTIST-1 YouTube channel, renaming it ARTIST-2 and changing the graphics, bio, and handle. At the same time, I created a brand new YouTube channel for ARTIST-1.

I also took down the two albums previously released as ARTIST-1 to re-release them immediately afterwards under the respective artists (one album was released with iMusician, the other with CD Baby, but both will be re-released with iMusician).

The problem is that despite rebranding the old YouTube channel, the YouTube Official Artist Channel (accessible at YouTube Music) still appears under the old name ARTIST-1, with old graphics that I should replace. It seems that I have no way to edit the channel and customize it.

I don’t know why this happens, maybe because I’ve already published under this artist name, YouTube created a Topic with the same name? I don’t know…

Is this normal? With iMusician, I have scheduled the release of a single for January 1, as ARTIST-2. A new artist will be created on Spotify, Tidal, etc., which is fine. But what will happen on YouTube? This single will have to be associated with the existing channel, which still bears the name ARTIST-1… will the artist channel on YouTube be automatically renamed?

Please help me understand, I’m worried, and I’d like to sort out this mess…

1 Like

hi @nightbit this is normal. YouTube Topic channels and Official Artist Channels (OAC) cannot be customized or renamed. When you distribute music as ARTIST-2 via iMusician, a new Release - Topic channel will be created for ARTIST-2. If your ARTIST-2 tracks gets enough views, YouTube may create an Artist - Topic channel for ARTIST-2. To consolidate or update your OAC, you need to request a new Official Artist Channel for ARTIST-2 once the Artist - Topic channel exists.