How do we monetize YouTube music promotion channels in 2019?

I have a few YouTube music channels where I upload electronic music. All these channels were dropped from the partner program back in 2018 when YouTube introduced new monetization rules.

For example I have a channel at 20k, which is completely legal. I either got permissions for uploading from the record label, a bunch of them whitelisted me, or I am using music according to their usage policies. However, YT keeps rejecting my applications, due to duplicate content. I tried doing only lyric videos and premieres / exclusives for a couple months but they didn't care at all.
Does anyone of you have a monetized YouTube music channel where you promote third-party music? If so, how did you do it?
What are alternative ways to make money off these kind of channels?

I can't vouch for this company personally but they do produce somewhat useful videos when navigating monetization for music promotion channels.


I think it would help you to build a simple website with a professional pitch deck embedded that you can send to record labels and indie artists. If you have access to embed their ISRC info into your YouTube uploads which you have to have access to via YouTube's tools, then that increases your value proposition quite a bit. Because record labels use music promo channels to chart their music, but that's only possible if the channel owner has the capability of embedding the song's ISRC, that's what hooks into Billboard's system and other charting tools.

You can essentially sell promotion to marketing managers of artists, granted your YouTube channel is big enough to warrant their attention. That way you can still earn money by providing a valuable service and you don't have to worry about monetizing on YouTube. But if you can't do that, look that Freedom! channel linked above, they have a lot of videos that talk about this topic.