YouTube has partnered with Merchbar to help artists sell official merchandise on their video pages.
This collaboration allows artists with an official artist channel on YouTube to surface apparel, vinyl, and other forms of merchandise underneath their videos.
Merchbar is currently home to over 1,000,000 items from 35,000 artists, making it one of the world’s largest music merchandise aggregator providers.
In an announcement, YouTube emphasizes how it’s working to become a more valuable platform for artists:
“This collaboration is another way YouTube is working with artists to become their most valuable platform, providing a single place to share their music, promote upcoming tour dates and showcase their own official merchandise to a global audience.”
YouTube is also becoming a stronger platform for fans of artists, as they now have direct access to official merchandise as they’re watching the artists’ latest music videos.
One limitation of this feature is that orders still have to be completed through Merchbar. That means clicking on a merch item will bring you to a shopping page on the Merchbar website.
It would arguably be better for users if the order could be completed through Google’s payment system without having to leave YouTube.
Eligible artists with an Official Artist Channel and a Merchbar store with US fulfillment enabled can sign up for the merch shelf in YouTub Studio.
This feature will first be rolling out in the US, with plans to expand internationally in the near future.
