YouTube has added YouTube Shorts-related data to its Analytics for Artists tool. The Total Reach metric now includes Shorts-related data, allowing artists to see how their music is reaching audiences across all formats on YouTube. Fan-created Shorts increased the average artist’s audience of unique viewers by more than 80% in January 2023. Artists who are active on Shorts saw more than 50% of their new channel subscribers coming directly from their Shorts posts on average.
New “Songs” Section in Analytics Tool
YouTube is launching a new “Songs” section in its Analytics tool to help artists see how fans are listening to their music or creating with it, across all video formats. The section will show artists their top songs from the past 28 days and what songs are being most used in Shorts.
“Shorts are the Appetizer to the Entrée”
According to Lyor Cohen, YouTube’s global head of Music, Shorts are the “appetizer to the entrée”. They are the entry point, leading fans to discover the depth of an artist’s catalogue, including music videos, interviews, live performances, lyric videos, and more. Cohen noted that Rema & Selena Gomez won big by leveraging all the video formats available on YouTube. After they surpassed 60 million unique viewers of their official music videos and Shorts for Calm Down, fans uploaded Shorts featuring their track, taking viewership to another level: adding 350 million unique viewers in January, an increase of over 500%.
Oliver Tree Case Study
In another example, Cohen noted that artist Oliver Tree uploaded 20 Shorts and four long-form videos tied to his song Miss You, after which his channel’s monthly viewers increased from six million to 75 million in over four months. Users brought in another 1.8 billion views in January by uploading Shorts featuring the song.
Encouraging More Artists to Use Shorts
By incorporating YouTube Shorts data to the Total Reach metric, the company may be looking to encourage more artists to use Shorts to promote their new music, which would, in turn, lead to more daily views of Shorts. Google revealed last month that YouTube Shorts are now being watched by more than 1.5 billion logged-in users every month and averaging over 50 billion daily views.
YouTube Shorts vs. Reels
Although YouTube Shorts’ milestone of 50 billion daily views is notable, it lags behind Instagram and Facebook’s Reels, which garnered 140 billion daily views across both social networks. YouTube has been looking for ways to increase the viewership of Shorts. The company rolled out Shorts on TV last November, seen as a way to help YouTube better challenge TikTok, which had also rolled out its own TV app to various platforms last year.