The rise of YouTube’s Art Tracks has caused some uncertainty among musicians over who owns what and if they’re a vital marketing tool. We’ll take a look behind the curtain and explain some facts about the Art Tracks on YouTube.
Definition of Art Track:
An Art Track is a YouTube video that plays music while presenting a static image of the cover art and includes the artist and song name in the title. They can be viewed by everyone from a desktop or mobile device. An Art Track is a YouTube version of a sound recording created automatically, according to YouTube.
An Art Track generally consists of-
1. The sound recording (the track audio)
2. The cover art
3. Artist name, copyright date, track title, and other metadata about the music recording.
Purpose of Art Tracks:
Art Tracks offer a “single official, label-sanctioned YouTube version of every audio recording.”
Each artist’s ISRCs, release IDs (UPC, EAN, GRid), and labels are used to produce YouTube Art Tracks. YouTube aims to provide the most extensive music library and experience imaginable. Art Tracks appear in the same places as professionally created music videos (e.g., album playlists, search results, and topic channels) and work in the same way.
Art Tracks automatic generation:
People accessing YouTube’s Content Management System (CMS) may view Art Tracks. It might be a direct artist, a middleman, or a rights management agency.
YouTube Music is an autonomous distribution business that includes Art Tracks. All metadata changes, disputes, and topic channel assignments are handled by YouTube directly. Although Art Tracks appear in the CMS like any other sound file, the CMS does not retain them.
Benefits of Art Tracks:
Art Tracks offer-
1. Better audio quality
2. Mobile audio-only playback
3. Music by related artists, playlists, or topics.
4. YouTube, rather than individual users, builds and administers these playlists and topic channels.
YouTube Music and Art Tracks:
As a YouTube Premium subscriber, you may listen to any Art Track on YouTube in audio-only mode, with all the benefits of other streaming services, including high-quality music and genome-matching playlist creation.
Anyone can now search for and listen to any art track on YouTube. The YouTube Premium membership will always prefer the high-quality audio of an Art Track over other renditions in audio-only mode.
Making Customized Art Tracks:
It is easy with video editing software such as iMovie and Premiere. You can even go for the Final Cut, etc. To personalize the video, you may add custom text, visualizers, and effects that are matched to your music.
Differences between user-generated Art Tracks and official YouTube Art Tracks:
In the Customized Art Track, the description will have pertinent info that the artist has provided, social links, and links to other videos. The YouTube-created Art Track will incorporate the artist’s name and track title, the administrator who provided the track to YouTube, and a copyright tag.
The YouTube Art Track will have a video queued up that’s from the artist’s Topic Channel. The Customized Art Track will have a video queued up from the artist’s YouTube channel.
Advantages of Customized Art Tracks:
Customizing Art Tracks may help an artist’s brand. In the description of a self-created Art Track, there may be related connections to music on other sites. They’re significantly more customizable than YouTube’s Art Tracks.
The video can be optimized with end screens, cards, and other stylish add-ons that aren’t present on the automatically generated YouTube Art Tracks.
Revenue of Art Tracks:
Every video that a user uploads on YouTube is checked to see if it contains any artist songs and if it does, it gets claimed. The artist will begin collecting a share of the money earned by video commercials and subscription-supported views once they claim their share. As a result, a single song might be recognized and claimed in hundreds of videos, receiving a piece of each one’s revenue.
Art Tracks, like Spotify songs, pay you per “view” (for subscription-supported views) and a share of the ad revenue generated by ad-supported views rather than each “stream.”
Revenue from Art Tracks will appear in the YouTube Music section under Digital Partner Sales.
If artists do not want their music handled through video monetization, they can still have it on YouTube as “Art Tracks.” Because selling music as “Art Tracks” on YouTube produces a new revenue source, it is considered a separate service.
YouTube Art Tracks is a new option for artists to get their work on YouTube without creating a music video. It enables artists to make their work available to customers in a high-quality, data-rich format.