YouTube expands Stations feature to ‘select new music artists’ – Music Ally

Earlier this year, YouTube launched a new feature called ‘Stations’ on its service. They were old-school MTV-style linear channels of music videos that broadcast 24/7, launching initially with around 40 artists including Bruno Mars and various Coachella performers. Now ‘Stations’ is expanding both in the number of creators who have access to it, and the nature of those channels. YouTube said that it’s rolling out “to include new formats like creator content, media channels, podcasts, and select new music artists… While we started this pilot with a small group of music artists, you’ll now start seeing Stations for a wide variety of new types of content”. Its update also explained the idea behind ‘Stations’, which is that fans watch videos “as an always-on, lean-back viewing experience” including chatting with other people who are watching at the same time – “making it feel like a shared viewing room”. This is quite important. It’s YouTube’s latest attempt to replicate the ‘watch party’ dynamic that’s been so key to Twitch  over the years (and arguably Discord too). It’s also a way to turn passive catalogue videos into round-the-clock viewing – that artists and YouTube alike can make money from. It’s also a way to cement YouTube’s position on
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