What's with all these youtube topic channels?

for example, Uncle Dave Macon - Topic. I've been seeing these channels for a lot of artists, and many of them include full albums. the content is automatically generated by youtube, so I assume that this is legal/paid-for, but I wonder how that works. until recently topic channels didn't contain any original uploads — they were vehicles for playlists that compiled popular videos from other users. it seems like these auto generated videos have only been around for a few months, and a lot of the videos/songs have been taken down already. weird.

I'm pretty sure it's google play cross pollination.

hmm, that's a plausible explanation (and one that I've run into elsewhere online), although I wish I could find an official source to confirm it. presumably the record labels gets a certain percentage of the ad revenue the channels generate, which is what happens with partnered youtube channels. but it must not be very profitable — e.g. the most viewed video on Katy Perry - Topic only has 31,723 views. I notice that the topics never include songs that the artist's official channel has already uploaded.

*record labels get

R. Stevie Moore - Topic (445 videos)

#FiddlinDocRoberts