July 8, 2020

YouTube has launched a new data dashboard called Analytics for Artists that allows artists to monitor their audience, global reach and performance across the entire YouTube ecosystem in real time.

YouTube describes Analytics for Artists as the “most comprehensive and complete view of [an artist’s] audience, global reach and performance” across the platform and promises that it “will equip artists and their teams with the knowledge they need to make the most informed and strategic release plans”.

The new service was announced (July 7 ) and is available for all Official Artist Channels.

Analytics for Artists can be found in YouTube Studio and the dashboard includes a number of features.

Firstly, YouTube says that the ‘Total Reach’ tool will give artists and their teams “the most comprehensive view of how their music is reaching audiences” across the entire platform.

This includes videos uploaded to an artist’s official channel, but also videos created and shared by fans, tastemakers and collaborators that contain most of the artist’s recordings.

The new ‘Song Detail’ feature, meanwhile, will show all videos that have been created for a specific song within an artist’s catalog and which contain most of a song’s recording.

This includes official uploads, but also fan-created lyric videos, cover versions, dance videos etc.

On average, according to YouTube, the top 1,000 artists on the platform get over 20% of their chart eligible views from videos created by users.

YouTube says that additional Analytics for Artists features will be rolled out soon.

“WE WANTED TO BUILD SOMETHING THAT’S SUPER COMPREHENSIVE BUT ALSO ACTIONABLE.”

CHRIS CLARK, YOUTUBE

Speaking to MBW, YouTube Product Manager Chris Clark said: “We developed [Analytics for Artists] from first principles on how an artist experiences YouTube. 

“The way creators release things and the way artists release things are really different.

“If you think about the journey of an artist’s creative works, there’s the audio and that gets uploaded to YouTub. We have YouTube Music and then there’s the premium music video that’s obviously a really an important creative work for the artist. 

“But then let’s say the label does a lyric video, or some sort of teaser video and [the artist] may do collaborations, or work with a tastemaker channel. Then there’s fan videos and the playlisting ecosystem that is on YouTube.

Added Clark: “We really wanted to build a product with that in mind, while still respecting the understanding of what YouTube is natively. I think it’s common knowledge that on YouTube you have a channel and on that channel you have videos.

“[We wanted to] make sure that we can give artists the best of both worlds; the power of owning your own channel on YouTube, while also understanding that there’s an entire ecosystem of creators working with your music and amplifying that.

“We wanted to build something that’s super comprehensive but also actionable given that artists do have their own channels.”