Analytics for Artists
Artist Analytics provides unique insights into how Analytics for Artists your music and videos are performing across YouTube.
From understanding where your audience is coming from to seeing what type of content resonates the most, Analytics for Artists gives you the tools to fine-tune your strategy and maximise your impact.
Getting there
To get started with Artist Analytics, you’ll
need to first open
YouTube Studio.
To get started with Artist Analytics, you’ll need to first open YouTube Studio.
You can access YouTube Studio directly by
visiting
studio.youtube.com, or from anywhere on YouTube by selecting your
profile picture then clicking 'YouTube
Studio'.
On mobile?
Download
the YouTube Studio app.
Once in Studio, simply select the Analytics tab (at the left on desktop, at the bottom on mobile) to open up your reports.
What is the Overview tab?
The Overview tab is your go-to place for a snapshot of your performance on YouTube. Here, you'll find key metrics such as total watch time, views and unique viewers, whether it's user-generated content (UGC) or your own officially released videos. It's also the place to see real-time activity, giving you insights into how new releases are doing within the last 60 minutes or 48 hours. Plus, you can track your cumulative subscribers and find out which videos, Shorts or streams are driving watch time.
Actions you can take
-
Monitor new releases: Keep an eye on your latest uploads to
see immediate audience reactions. -
Track viewer growth: Understand trends in your subscriber
count and unique viewers over time to see what content drives growth. Use unique viewers instead of subscriber count to get a clearer picture of the true size of your audience. -
Identify top performers: See which videos, Shorts and live
streams are getting the most views and engagement to replicate success.
1
The Official Artist Channel filter will show
you data for videos attributed to you that were
uploaded by you, your label or VEVO.
The filter for 'Other channels' will show you data
for videos posted by other channels, including
collaborations with other artists, videos that
feature all or nearly all of your song and videos
where your song is the primary component.
This filter can be used across all of your
reports in Analytics for Artists.
The Content tab is all about segmenting your analytics by format –videos, songs, Shorts, live streams, posts and podcasts. This is where you can find out what traffic sources are driving discovery, which videos and songs are performing best and what type of content keeps your audience engaged.
The Audience tab gives you a deeper look into who is watching and listening to your music. Here, you can see demographics like age, gender and top countries or regions. You can also find out when your audience is most active on YouTube and what other content they're watching.
For those who want to dive even deeper, Advanced mode is available within each tab. This feature lets you compare performance metrics across different content types and view detailed data on various aspects of your content.
- Clicking 'Advanced mode' at the top or any 'See more' button beneath most reports will give you more options to get more in-depth information on your performance.
Common questions
You can find video-level analytics by:
-
Clicking a specific video title or thumbnail anywhere within
Analytics, or -
Clicking the graph icon on your Content tab.
Channel-level analytics let you see an overview of key stats like views, watch time and subscribers, as well as key moments for audience retention.
Click into the Content tab and select 'Songs'.
Click into individual songs for a more detailed breakdown of performance, including a percentage breakdown of viewership and 'content using your song' across Shorts and video.
Click on the Advanced mode button in the top-right corner, select 'Content type' from the 'Filter' menu, then select 'Shorts'.
You will now see insights including top songs that were used in Shorts created by fans under the 'Songs' tab and top Shorts content under the 'Content' tab.
You can also easily access this report by clicking on the 'Content using your song' card on mobile.
Click on the Audience tab and scroll down to 'Other videos that your audience watched'.
This report can help you to find other artists or creators to collaborate with. It can also help to identify what other types of content are resonating with your fans.
Click on the Audience tab and select 'Unique viewers'.
You can use unique viewer data to get a clearer picture of your audience size, or the estimated number of viewers who came to watch your videos over a given time period. Whether they watch on desktop or mobile, or watch more than once, that counts as one unique viewer. This may provide a more accurate look into your current audience than simply using subscriber count.
You should also take a look at the New and returning users report on the Audience tab. Use this report to look at specific content that is capturing new listeners vs what content is re-engaging existing fans.
Click on the Content tab and scroll down to 'How viewers find your videos'. This will show you what traffic sources are driving discovery of your content. For details, select 'See more'. You can then click directly on 'Playlists' to see a breakdown of specific playlists that your music features in.
Use insights on traffic sources and top playlists to curate and create playlists based on audience listening sessions. Do you have popular songs that are driving most of your watch time and listening?
Consider putting together playlists of related videos (interviews, behind-the-scenes footage, live versions) around these popular tracks, or use these as anchors in your playlists to hook viewers while exposing them to other songs that they might also like.
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