A YouTube Premiere lets you schedule a music video so fans watch it together at a set time, with a countdown and live chat. An Official Artist Channel (OAC) brings your YouTube channels together into one artist channel. You request an OAC through your label or distributor, or through a Music Service Partner if you have neither.
How a Premiere works
YouTube explains the steps on its Premieres help page. You upload the video in YouTube Studio, then either set it as an instant Premiere or schedule it for a date and time.
Before it starts:
- A public watch page is created, so you can share the link while you build up to release.
- Fans can set a reminder, comment and chat on the watch page. Anyone who sets a reminder gets a notification about 30 minutes before the Premiere and another when it starts.
- If you’ve uploaded a trailer, it plays on the watch page.
During the Premiere:
- A countdown begins at the scheduled time and runs for the length you chose. If you set 7pm, the countdown starts at 7pm, so the video itself begins a little later.
- When the countdown ends, everyone watches together in real time. Viewers can rewind, but they can’t skip ahead of what’s been shown.
- You and your viewers can keep talking in the comments and live chat.
Afterwards, the video stays on your channel as a normal upload, without the countdown. Chat replay is there for anyone who missed it, and the views from the Premiere carry over to the video.
Premiere limits to plan around
- Shorts can’t be premiered. A vertical teaser goes out as a normal Short instead.
- Nothing above 1080p. YouTube says 360, VR180 or an output greater than 1080p isn’t supported for Premieres. If you have a 4K master, plan on a 1080p file for the Premiere, or release the 4K file as a normal scheduled upload. Our post on YouTube upload settings for music videos covers that choice.
- A strike stops it. If your account has a Community Guidelines strike, the Premiere won’t publish during the penalty period. It’s set to private and you have to reschedule it.
What an Official Artist Channel does
YouTube’s Official Artist Channel page says an OAC merges the subscribers from your topic channel, your Vevo channel if you have one, and your existing channel into one channel. Your subscribers see your new music videos whichever of those channels they subscribed to. You also get tools such as Analytics for Artists, along with ticketing and merch features.
The requirements
To be eligible, you must:
- own and run a single artist’s or band’s channel that is focused on that artist’s music
- have at least one official music release on YouTube, delivered and distributed by a music distributor or label
- keep the channel within YouTube’s policies, including the Community Guidelines, Terms of Service and copyright policies.
You must also meet at least one of these:
- work with a YouTube Partner Manager
- be in the YouTube Partner Programme
- be part of a label network that works with a YouTube Partner Manager
- have your music distributed by a music partner listed in the YouTube Services Directory for music partners.
YouTube also recommends having at least one public video on the channel as well as the official release. Requests from channels with no public videos may be rejected or need extra checks. A music video uploaded to your own channel covers this.
How to request one
Ask your label or distributor to request the OAC for you. If you’re independent and have neither, a Music Service Partner can request it as part of delivering your music to YouTube. YouTube lists these partners in its Services Directory. If you’re also sorting out codes for the release, read Does a music video need its own ISRC?
Once you have an OAC, a Community Guidelines strike, or content with limited features, turns it back into a standard channel. YouTube restores it automatically when neither applies, as long as the channel still meets the other criteria.
Building up to release day
The Signature package on our music videos page includes 10 social media reels and a standard promo, listed as “Out Now / Coming soon”. Here is one way to use them around a Premiere:
- Schedule the Premiere and share the watch page link with the promo, asking fans to set a reminder.
- Post a few of the reels in the days before, each pointing back to the watch page.
- Post the remaining reels in the weeks after, linking to the full video.
The watch page is public from the moment you schedule, so set your custom thumbnail before you share the link. Making YouTube thumbnails from your title templates has some ideas.
Teasers as Shorts
Shorts can now be up to three minutes long. For standard channels, this applies to square or vertical videos uploaded from 15 October 2024. For Official Artist Channels, it applies to uploads from 8 December 2025. So a vertical cut of your video under three minutes will be classed as a Short. If you want a video treated as long-form, YouTube suggests a wider aspect ratio such as 16:9.
Check the Content ID rules before posting a long teaser. The UK English version of YouTube’s three-minute Shorts page says that from 24 September 2026, new Shorts between one and three minutes with an active Content ID claim are no longer automatically blocked. The US English version of the same page still describes the older rule, where those Shorts were blocked worldwide. The page says nothing changes for Shorts under one minute, so a teaser under a minute isn’t affected by either version.
The same page notes that artist channels linked to a music content owner can have Shorts blocked by a “first-party claim” created by their own label. If that happens, ask your label to release the claim. For sizes and lengths across platforms, see Video sizes and lengths for Reels, Shorts, TikTok and YouTube.
Planning the video around the release
Everything in the build-up points to one date, so fix it early. Our help centre asks artists with a release date or label deadline to tell us upfront, and rush delivery in 1 to 3 days is available as a paid option.
To see videos we’ve made for artists, browse our portfolio. To talk about your next release, contact us.
