You can now buy vinyl and merch on YouTube

The official merchandise will appear alongside their official music videos during playback on YouTube. The merchandise can then be purchased on Merchbar by clicking the link provided.

Only artists with an official YouTube channel and a Merchbar account can sign up for the feature on YouTube Studio.

Merchbar says it holds more than 1 million items from 35 000 artists, which makes it the largest music merchandise aggregator globally.

The collaboration will allow thousands of artists to promote their own merchandise and vinyl listings, the retailer said.

“YouTube is the first platform to give everyone on Earth the opportunity to explore the world’s creativity and our universal language: music,” Merchbar CEO Ed Aten said.

"We’re honoured to work with YouTube to bring people even closer to their favourite artists and provide new ways to express their love and identity.”

This partnership is a further step that YouTube owner Google has taken to invest in the music platform. Earlier this year, the technology giant discontinued Google Play Music in favour of YouTube Music, which now comes pre-installed on newly purchased Android devices.

“Merchandise drops have become an integral part of artists’ album campaigns and with this partnership YouTube is giving fans direct access to their most favourite merch,” YouTube said.

“With placement below the videos on both mobile and desktop, the merch shelf is a tremendous opportunity for artists to drive awareness and get their latest gear in the hands of fans.”

After two decades of a slump, vinyl sales have bounced back with a steady increase since the late 2000s. And in 2018 vinyl album sales amounted to $9.7m. In the pre-digital age, vinyl sales peaked at 1.1 billion worldwide in 1981. However, the introduction of CDs and other digital media saw the figure plunging as low as $3m in 2006.

The YouTube-Merchbar partnership will also boost artists' album sales, according to YouTube.

The feature is currently available in the US with plans to roll it out globally in the near future.