Analytics for Artists
Artist Analytics provides unique insights into how your music and videos perform 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 maximize 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 you can access from anywhere on YouTube by
selecting your profile picture then clicking
YouTube Studio.
On mobile?
Download
the YouTube Studio App.
Once in Studio, simply click the Analytics tab (left on computer, bottom on mobile) to open up your reports.
What is the Overview Tab
This 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 spot to check out 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 see what 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 your audience’s true size.
-
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 the “Advanced Mode” on 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 into a specific video title or thumbnail anywhere within
Analytics or -
Clicking into the graph icon on your Content Tab.
Channel level analytics lets you see an overview of key stats likes 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 on top right, select “Content type” from the “Filter” menu, select “Shorts.”
You will now see insights including top songs that were used in fans’ Shorts creations 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, scroll down to “Other videos your audience watched.”
This report can help you find other artists or creators to collaborate with. It can also help identify what other types of content are resonating for your fans.
Click on the Audience tab, select “Unique Viewers.”
You can use unique viewers 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 a computer or mobile, or watch more than once, that counts as one unique viewer. This may provide a more accurate look into your current audience over simply using subscriber count.
You should also check out 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, 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 your music is featured in.
Use insights on traffic sources and top playlists to curate and create playlists based on audiences listening sessions. Do you have popular songs that are driving most of your watch time and listening?
Consider building out playlists of related videos (interviews, BTS, live versions) around these popular tracks or use these as anchors in your playlists to hook viewers while exposing them to other songs they might like.
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