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YouTube Expands Music Video Analytics for Artists

YouTube Analytics for Artists

YouTube has dramatically expanded its Analytics for Artists tools, including mobile support and enhanced audience-interaction statistics.

Data is the name of the game in business today. With the vast majority of engagement and interaction happening online, especially during the pandemic, those getting ahead are doing so by studying their analytics. Most platforms offer musicians so level of insight into how fans are interacting with their art, but YouTube’s latest development is leaving many competitors in the dust.

YouTube unveiled an upgraded Analytics for Artists program this week. The rollout included a short video and a release published under the YouTube for Artists banner. Check out the clip below:

Analytics for Artists, now in YouTube Studio, provides a new and improved view of an artist’s catalog on YouTube. Analytics for Artists will be available for all Official Artist Channels and provide access to a unique set of features that will equip artists and their teams with the knowledge they need to make the most informed and strategic release plans. 

What can you expect from Analytics For Artists:

  • Understand Your Audience: The new ‘Total Reach’ feature gives artists and their teams the most comprehensive view of how their music is reaching audiences across YouTube. This includes videos uploaded to their official channels in addition to those created and shared by fans, tastemakers, and collaborators that contain most of the artist’s recordings.
  • See How Your Music Inspires Fan Creation: The new ‘Song Detail’ feature makes it easy for artists to see all of the videos that have been created for a specific song within their catalog and contain most of their song recording. This content created by users benefits artists of all sizes and is largely incremental to views of their official content on YouTube. On average, the top 1,000 artists on YouTube get over 20% of their chart eligible views from videos created by users. From official uploads to fan-created lyric videos, covers, dance videos, and more, Song Detail shows all of the ways in which fans are enjoying and engaging with any specific track, all in one place.
  • Comprehensive and Actionable Data: Analytics for Artists is home to the most robust set of audience and performance insights you can´t find anywhere else. Understand how your catalog is distributed across the entire YouTube ecosystem and how your audience engages with it: impressions, clicks, demographics, retention, and engagement data. It’s all here and now in real-time.
  • Easy Access to Real-Time Insights: In addition to desktop, artists can now easily access these new insights on the YouTube Studio Mobile app, enabling them to get data and notification updates, in real-time, whether they are on the road or in the studio. Having the most up-to-date information at your fingertips will help with prompt and informed decision making.

What makes YouTube’s new developments so impressive is how it show’s the company’s understanding of its unique ecosystem. Unlike Spotify or Apple Music, anyone can upload their favorite song to YouTube. The new tools crawl the depths of the platform to provide insight into the ways an artist’s creative output inspires others. That kind of information can completely change a musician’s approach to marketing and fan engagement in meaningful ways.

Your move, everyone else.
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YouTube is Testing ‘Applause,’ A New Way to Support Creators

Following the lead of Twitch and similar live-streaming platforms, YouTube will soon allow viewers to support content creators directly.

YouTube is the largest video platform in the world, and it often ranks as the most popular service for music and content discovery. However, the service has repeatedly come under fire for its notoriously low royalty payments. YouTube pays less per view than Spotify, Tidal, or Apple Music pays per song stream. It pays less than virtually anyone, in fact, but the company is testing a new tool that may offer relief to content creators.

Applause, which is now in the testing phase of release, allows views to contribute to content creators directly. The idea is very similar to the micro-transactions available to viewers of Twitch streams. On that platform, Twitch viewers can purchase ‘bits’ with real money. Viewers can spend bits in a variety of ways. Creator channels can offer custom emojis, special channel statuses, and more for bits. Twitch pays creators one cent for every bit they earn from their viewers in a month.

Youtube’s Applause is less transparent. It is unclear how much creators make off the contributions to their channel, which is upsetting creators currently involved in the testing phase of the product rollout. It’s clear YouTube hopes this development will off-set criticism for its royalty payments, but the company will first need to provide clarity on the exchange rate.

Australia, Brazil, India, Japan, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, and the USA are on the beta test shortlist. You may see an ‘Applaud’ button under participating content creator videos. Clicking the button offers a pop-up to see how much an applause costs. The U.S. pop-up appears to offer a standard $2 donation option.

There are no limits on the number of donations or Applause that can be given to a single video. YouTube also guarantees that personal details are not shared with the creator and are not made public. That seems rife for abuse, right?

Purchase limits for the YouTube Applause feature are in place to prevent abuse. Users can only spend $500 a day or $2000 per week Super Chats, Super Stickers, and Applause. These payments are tips to the creator and cannot be refunded.

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Advice: Your YouTube Channel Checklist

Whether or not you’re a believer yet, video is quickly becoming one of the most successful tools in marketing music. It doesn’t matter if you’re sharing a video or a song stream playing against a static image, the popularity of video platforms like YouTube has ushered in an era where demand for music video content is higher than ever, and if you’re smart you’re doing everything you can to meet that demand with original, engaging content. This post isn’t about what you post as much as how you maintain the channel you’ve created, and we owe thanks to former spotlight guest Bobby Owsinski for its creation.

YouTube Channels are where your online video content lives, but it’s more than just a place to store your uploads. Fans can and will interact with this channel as if it were any other social network, and because of this you need to make sure you’re doing everything possible to maximize how that engagement positively impacts your brand. Use this check list to ensure you have covered all your bases:

Branded Channel Art

The channel art is the banner at the top of the page where you can display a customized graphic. YouTube suggests this graphic be 2560 x1440 pixels so that it works on all types of televisions, tablets, smartphones and computers, but what YouTube will show on most computer browsers is 1546 x 423. This is known as the “safe area” and is where you should place any critical graphics information since anything outside that area might not show up on a device with a smaller screen. The graphic can be up to 2MB and in either a JPG or PNG format. The Channel Art upload section is accessed by clicking on the pen icon on the top right of graphics box. You can access a template for the channel art, as well as a design tutorial, by clicking on “How to create channel art” at the bottom of the upload pop up box.

Channel Description

You access your channel description from the About tab underneath your channel name. After the About box pops up, select the pen icon on the upper right to edit. From here you can enter or edit the description. Be sure to include all the information about your channel in the description, such as what to expect from the video content as well as who’s involved (like the members of a band).

Website link

The website and social medial links are accessed in the same manner as above; through the pen icon on the top right of the box. Here you can add links to websites, blogs and social networks. The first weblink you entered will appear on the lower right side above your channel art, as will the social network icons. The others will appear in the About box.

Social Media Links

Make sure that you connect your Facebook and Twitter accounts to your YouTube channel, as well as any other networks you may have.

Channel Icon (picture)

The avatar is either a picture of you, your band, or product that appears on the upper left of your channel page. The avatar can be up to 800 x 800 (you’re able to crop it) and 1MB in size, although the smaller the file size the better, since it will load faster. The picture is stored with your Google+ account, and you can also access any pictures stored there to use as your avatar.

Featured Video or Trailer

Another thing that you can do is feature a particular video or trailer at the top of the page when someone who is unsubscribed visits your channel. Simply select the pen icon on the top right of the box, select a video, then hit save. You can see what both subscribers and non-subscribers see by toggling Unsubscribed trailer and Subscriber view next to the edit icon.

Playlists

YouTube allows you to create multiple playlists, which can have a great influence in how your fans consume your content. If you have a fair number of videos, you might want to create different playlists for different parts of your fan base, since each may have a different desire of what to watch. While your superfans will want to see everything you upload, your casual fans may be more selective. You can select the order and layout of these playlists, or create a new one, by selecting the edit icon on the top right of the playlist box.“

It’s easy enough to have a YouTube channel without using many of the above features, but it will be so much more powerful if you do as it connects with the rest of your online presence.

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