Soundcloud has long been the primary streaming platform for EDM, and a fairly reliable pulse of how big of an audience artists have. For this reason it is heavily perused by musicians, A&R, managers, booking agents and promoters alike.
One of their indirect competitors, YouTube, is now deciding to put some pressure on the often flawed music platform that is Soundcloud. Although primarily used by music curators and record labels, the Google-driven video hub is starting to incorporate more artist friendly tools to increase individual channel presence. We recently posted about one such tool, the Music Key subscription service, which is taking on Spotify; however YouTube has now rolled out plans for several more additions, including:
- A new music-specific insights tool which will geo-tag your listeners for easier tour planning. Although there is not much more to be found out about this tool, yet, YouTube claims it is coming soon.
- A new partnership with Sirius XM to create the ‘YouTube 15’ and the ‘YouTube EDM 15’, which will feature trending tracks from YouTube’s hottest emerging and established artists. This is an unprecedented addition, and a brilliant one at that; a prime example of how internet popularity can directly translate into real life radio success for musicians.
- Algorithmic insights to help the small, solo artists best reach their audience and keep them engaged.
- Physical locations to film, work, and collaborate with other channels, YouTube has state-of-the-art studios already in place in Los Angeles, London, Tokyo, New York, & São Paulo.
Read more on YouTube For Artists here. 
While all of these advances are very exciting for us as both listeners and curators, artists are going to be seeing a huge boost in the YouTube community and we applaud Google for helping shine the light on individual artists, as opposed to the major record labels that the modern (dance) music community has so many issues with.
Photo by Rukes
