"I'm glad YouTube has finally taken action to give credit where credit is due. Hope it means the new YouTube music service will lead to greater respect and treatment to music creators and their rights." — Conversations In Advocacy #21

If you've been following the Recording Academy's advocacy efforts, you'll know that the Give Fans The Credit campaign, one of our major initiatives, has been lobbying digital music services to include credit information for all songs that are played. After all, without songwriters, producers, and studio musicians, there would be no music for fans to bump in their cars, play on their phone or jam out to on the dance floor. Accordingly, streaming services should acknowledge all the creatives behind the tracks fans love.

Similar to the crediting changes Spotify made in February, on May 16 YouTube announced an important step forward to recognize music creators. The Google-owned streaming platform will now display artist and songwriter information with official links to artists' websites, in addition to the labels and publishers behind the music — all accessible using the new "music in this video" feature under Show More attached to each video.

YouTube will display credits across millions of the videos on their platform, including official artist videos, fan-generated content using music, DJ sets, short films, beauty vlogs, and gamer videos. The ability to discover credit information on fan-made content is a first for any platform, which YouTube is able to administer using its Content ID system.

While displaying credits marks a huge step forward, there is still work to be done to ensure music professionals are credited and compensated properly for their work, and that their copyrights are fully protected, which YouTube acknowledged.

"YouTube is committed to providing recognition to all of the people who contribute to the creative process, and this is just the beginning," YouTube said. "Through our industry partnerships we will expand the scope and quality of data to ensure all creators are credited as completely and accurately as possible."

And artists are getting onboard with this step in the right direction. Take, for example, GRAMMY winner Elton John.

"It's wonderful seeing [songwriters] get the credit they deserve," John said. "There is so much more we can do to establish a better situation for music creators and this is great step forward."

The move to display credits on YouTube follows the announcement of its new premium paid music subscription, which may also bolster revenues paid to music creators. Similar to other digital streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music, YouTube Music Premium will offer users the chance to stream ad-free audio on the service for $9.99 a month. Those who want unlimited access to all of YouTube's content can go the YouTube Premium route for $11.99 a month.

YouTube is taking a step in the right direction by recognizing that fans want to know more about the people who create the music they love. Now more of the music professionals behind the scenes who are crucial to the creative process will get the credit they are due. We hope YouTube will continue to expand the credit information they provide and that other digital music services will follow suit.

Tell Online Music Services To Give Fans The Credit!

"Conversations in Advocacy" is your weekend digital tip sheet on the policies that affect music makers and their craft. New installments post every Friday.