Rappers are becoming influencers. You’re surprised by the opposite

The advent of YouTube has been accompanied by the emergence of media personalities. Commonly referred to as YouTubers, these internet celebrities build complex careers spanning a variety of artistic fields. This article explores the musical creations of 25 French YouTube channels. Based on a corpus of 401 music tracks produced by YouTubers between 2011 and 2024, the article first reveals a diversity of musical productions that are either consistent with the YouTuber’s identity (clash, parody, appreciation) or diverge from it to assert themselves as musical productions in their own right (album/EP). Some of these musical productions are very successful in terms of metrics and contribute to the YouTubers’ income. Finally, the article analyses the relations between these YouTubers and the music industry, and shows that two models coexist: self-production, and cooperation with labels.