YouTube Adds New Shorts Analytics Insights for Artist Channels, Expanding its Short-Form Content Push

YouTube continues to push its TikTok-like Shorts offering, this time through new insights for music creators which will show them how popular their songs are among Shorts users.

As you can see in this example, YouTube’s adding another element into YouTube Analytics for official artist channels which will provide insights into the most popular songs being used in Shorts clips over the previous 28 day period.

YouTube will also show musicians which of their songs are generating interest within Shorts, along with total view counts for those clips.

It’s another element within YouTube’s growing Shorts push, and with Shorts popularity rising fast, it makes sense for YouTube to lean in, while also adding ever more pressure to TikTok, which is still in the process of establishing its monetization models.

YouTube’s key advantage in this race is its developed revenue share systems, which already see it paying out billions to creators every year. TikTok only really has its $200 million Creator Fund for direct compensation to creators – which, when you consider that YouTube reportedly paid around $15 billion to creators in 2021 alone, is a drop in the ocean in terms of monetization opportunity.

By providing more insight and connection to Shorts performance, YouTube’s looking to help its top stars diversify their presence, enabling extra promotional and reach potential via Shorts clips, which will then, ideally, bring more viewers back to their main channel, where they can make real money from their efforts.

It’s a more structured content approach than TikTok can offer, and over time, YouTube will be hoping that creators simply see more potential in its platform, which incorporates its rising short video clips, as opposed to posting to TikTok instead.

These new analytics are another step in that direction, encouraging additional Shorts use by top stars, helping to maximize their in-app efforts.