YouTube announces new ad products to help brands reach Gen Z through music

Short-form video has transformed the music industry, and YouTube is helping its brand partners keep up with all the change. The leading video platform has announced a pair of new ad products: Gen Z Music and Trending Music On Shorts.

One of the two new solutions is already available. Gen Z Music allows brands to stay in front of 18-to-24-year-olds as those coveted consumers listen to their favorite tracks across multiple formats. Using AI, YouTube will identify the songs Gen Z is obsessed with and package those hits together for advertisers.

A blog post attributed to the VP of Product Management at YouTube Ads, Nicky Rettke, identified Korean chart-toppers Blackpink as one group whose videos can be included in Gen Z Music bundles. “According to research agency TalkShoppe, viewers report splitting their viewing time across many different video formats — with Gen Z (18-24) spending no more than 22% of their viewing time watching one format,” Rettke wrote. “To help you reach Gen Z (18-24) no matter how they’re consuming music on YouTube, we’re announcing two new music ad solutions that will be available to advertisers in the coming months: Gen Z Music and a Trending Music on Shorts pilot.”

Initially, Gen Z Music will include long-form videos and audio content. For advertisers who wish to reach audiophiles through YouTube’s TikTok competitor, Trending Music On Shorts is expected to arrive “in the coming months.” Upon its launch, that product will identify songs that are featured in short-form trends. Brands will be able to place their ads next to videos that feature those viral soundbites.

YouTube has already touted the influence of its Shorts community, which is big enough to make chart-topping hits out of short-form memes. A notable example is the Miley Cyrus single ‘Flowers,’ which soared up the Billboard Hot 100 while appearing in more than 600,000 Shorts. Thanks to the advent of YouTube Shorts ads, brands have a new way to take advantage of the excitement that surrounds widely-shared pop songs.

As YouTube guides its ad partners through the musical tastes of Gen Z, it is also taking steps to ensure that creators can easily access trending audio across multiple formats. A service called Creator Music has launched to help videomakers license a library of “mainstream” tracks. Meanwhile, on Shorts, the Analytics for Artists toolkit is helping musicians and labels track the impact of their hit songs.