Right up there with our love of award-winning Texas BBQ is our love of independent music and the people who create it. That’s why the indie-centric
SXSW Music Conference in Austin is the perfect place to launch the
YouTube Partner Program (YPP) for musicians, aka
Musicians Wanted. It's just the latest step in the YPP's
continual expansion.
This time, we’re inviting thousands of artists who made the trek to Texas -- and the rest of you accomplished musicians at home -- to
apply today. If accepted, you'll join stars like ukulele songstress
Julia Nunes, singer-songwriter
David Choi and
many others who, as partners, are able to make some money from their YouTube videos. Here's multi-instrumentalist and YouTube musician extraordinaire
Jack Conte and songstress
Nataly Dawn (aka
Pomplamoose) to tell you more:
We've also got a few words from our most recent YPP Music partner. You may have heard of them – they're
a little band with
a viral hit or
two and recently made headlines by
starting their own indie label. As OK Go's Damian Kulash puts it "YouTube has always been a great match for OK Go - creativity flourishes and we can connect directly with our fans. So when we heard about
Musicians Wanted, it was a no-brainer: it sounds great for us. We're honored and excited to be the first applicants. We can't wait to get new videos up on our channel."
So whether you make
hip-hop,
folk,
noise-rock,
jazz or a
genre of your own invention, we are looking for all types of original music video content. One thing to keep in mind is that right now this program only supports video content by U.S.-based artists, though there are plans to roll out the program more widely in the future.