Spotify’s “Monthly Listeners” has long been a brag‑worthy stat. Now YouTube Music is giving artists a comparable public benchmark: Monthly Audience. The figure updates daily and shows how many unique viewers or listeners engaged with your music across all YouTube surfaces in the past 28 days.
Below is everything you need to know, from what’s counted to how to unlock the badge:
What Exactly Is the Monthly Audience Metric?
- Definition: Total unique users worldwide who watched or listened to your content in the last 28 days across YouTube and YouTube Music.
- Update cadence: Refreshed daily for maximum freshness.
- Visibility: Displayed publicly on your Artist Details page in YouTube Music (web & mobile) and in search results, right beside your subscriber count.
How YouTube Calculates Your Monthly Audience
| Source of Plays | Counts Toward Metric? |
|---|---|
| Official music videos & albums uploaded by you or your label | ✔︎ |
| Shorts on your Official Artist Channel | ✔︎ |
| Collaborations on partner channels featuring your music | ✔︎ |
| Fan‑made videos or Shorts that use your audio | ✔︎ |
| Non‑music uploads on your channel (vlogs, BTS, livestreams) | ✔︎ |
| Private / unlisted videos | ✘ |
Every signed‑in viewer is tallied once per 28‑day window, so heavy repeat plays by super‑fans won’t inflate the figure.
Eligibility: Who Sees the Badge, and Who Doesn’t?
Your channel must tick three boxes before the stat appears publicly:
- Official Artist Channel (OAC) status
- 100,000+ subscribers
- 50,000+ Monthly Audience
If you’re below any threshold, fans will continue to see only your sub count. You, however, can still view Monthly Audience privately in YouTube Analytics for Artists:
- Go to
studio.youtube.com→ Overview tab. - Toggle Total Reach for both OAC and Other channels.
- Look for “Unique viewers”—that’s the same number.
Why the Metric Matters for Artists & Teams
1. Bigger Than Subscribers
Subscribers signal loyalty, but Monthly Audience captures actual reach, including casual viewers discovering you via Shorts, collabs or algorithmic recommendations.
2. Comparable to Spotify Monthly Listeners
Industry press, playlist editors and brands already benchmark acts using Spotify’s public listener stat. Now you can serve them an even broader reach figure pulled from the world’s largest video platform.
3. Daily Pulse for Campaigns
Because the metric updates every 24 hours, you can gauge the immediate impact of a music‑video drop, Shorts trend, tour vlog or influencer collab without waiting for delayed analytics dashboards.
Common Questions Artists Ask (FAQ)
Does watching my own videos boost the count?
No. YouTube filters out your own channel activity, plus non‑logged‑in traffic.
Will the badge ever replace subscribers entirely?
Tests show both metrics side‑by‑side for now, but YouTube says it’s “exploring new ways” to highlight reach.
Is it the same as “Unique viewers” in Analytics?
Yes – Monthly Audience is simply the front‑of‑house label for that backend stat.