A dynamic new “Monthly Audience” metric is being tested to replace the subscriber count, making it easier to measure actual engagement.

YouTube Music is shaking things up by testing a new “Monthly Audience” metric to replace the traditional subscriber count that has long been carried across from the main YouTube platform. Spotify prominently displays its “Monthly Listeners” metric, and now YouTube Music is looking to do the same.

During this testing phase some artist pages will start displaying “Monthly Audience”, while others will continue to show their total “Subscribers” count.

What is the monthly audience metric?

The “Monthly Audience” estimates the number of unique users globally who have viewed or listened to an artist’s content in the past month across all YouTube formats. Unlike the subscriber count, which only reflects those who have subscribed, this metric paints a broader picture of an artist’s reach.

“We’re introducing a new fan-facing public metric on YouTube Music: Monthly Audience. It will update daily to show an artist’s total number of unique listeners and viewers across all formats in the last 28 days.”

YouTube Music Help Center page

What does it include?

YouTube Music’s new metric is designed to showcase an artist’s presence across the platform. Here’s what it counts:

  • Artist-uploaded content: Videos, including Shorts, uploaded by the artist or their label.
  • Collaborative works: Collaborations featuring the artist’s music uploaded to other channels.
  • Fan-generated content: Videos, including Shorts, uploaded by fans with the artist’s music.
  • Non-music content: Interestingly, non-music videos on an artist’s channel are also included.

This approach covers listening and viewing across all YouTube formats, including YouTube, YouTube Music, and YouTube kids.

Why the change?

YouTube describes this move as an effort to explore “new ways to show an artist’s presence and reach.” By focusing on

unique listeners and viewers, the Monthly Audience metric provides a more dynamic and up-to-date reflection of fan engagement. Prioritising monthly interactions highlights real and current engagement instead of static subscriber numbers.

Whether you’re an artist, manager, or music industry professional, this change could provide you with more meaningful metrics to monitor your engagement on YouTube Music in order to leverage them to your advantage. For now, we will simply have to see what this test phase reveals if it is fully launched.

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