YouTube Music introduces Artist on the Rise content series

Mar 12, 2019 - Product News

In effort to support and help more artists get discovered at every phase of their career, YouTube Music expanded its Artist on the Rise trending tab feature in 2018 with the launch of its Artist on the Rise program, giving an early nod to some of the year’s rising stars like Jessie Reyez, Ella Mai, Rosalía and Brockhampton. Today, YouTube Music is expanding the program for 2019, and introducing a new Artist on the Rise content series to highlight the journey of each featured artist.

Produced in exclusive partnership with Genius, the new content series captures intimate interviews with the artist and their reactions to old YouTube videos of themselves and their fans to showcase the artists’ evolution and connection with fans on YouTube.

“Every artist has stories that reveal more about who they are and how they've found inspiration and influences from their community of fans," said Lyor Cohen, Global Head of Music at YouTube. "There's no better platform than YouTube for artists to reach and connect directly with fans and through our new Artist on The Rise Content Series, we're providing a way for emerging artists to share their unique journey with the fans that have been right there with them along the way."

The first episode of the Artist on The Rise content series launches today with YouTube Music’s first Artist on the Rise of 2019, Maggie Rogers, and can be seen on her YouTube channel. Maggie takes us on a journey leading up to the release of her debut album, "Heard It In a Past Life," looking back on the first moment she decided she wanted to be a musician, the unexpected pivotal moment in her classroom with Pharrell and more.

"I'm a giant fan of every artist selected to be in YouTube’s Artist On The Rise program, so to be joining that group of artists is such an honor," said Maggie Rogers. "What’s so empowering about YouTube is that it’s a creative space and it offers such wide agency to artists to have creative freedom and use their voice to express themselves in whatever way feels true to them. With YouTube, this has felt like one of the most open and collaborative partners I could possibly work with so it’s a really exciting fit and opportunity for me."

New episodes will be released to coincide with the launch of each Artist on the Rise featured artist, including 2019 Artist on the Rise selections Gunna, Dermot Kennedy, Half Alive and Mau y Ricky among others. As with Maggie Rogers, each episode will capture a behind the scenes look into the artist’s overall story.

Since it’s 2018 launch, YouTube Music’s Artist on the Rise program has showcased rising stars that have gone on to see amazing success. Jessie Reyez’ feature as 2018’s inaugural Artist on the Rise drove her biggest weekend to date on YouTube, which was immediately followed by her biggest debut to date with her video for “Body Count” scoring 180K views in its first 24 hours. In addition to winning a GRAMMY Award for Best R&B Song, Artist on the Rise Ella Mai hit #1 on the US YouTube Top Songs Chart and #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and received both VMA and AMA nominations. Other success stories include Queen Naija, who hit #1 on Billboard emerging artists and reached #8 on the US YouTube Top Songs Chart; Brockhampton, achieving a #1 album on Billboard 200; and Rosalia, who won two awards out of her five nominations at the 2018 Latin GRAMMY Awards.