This feature could inform users how many times they had listened to a particular track, as well as the total number of plays the song has received
YouTube Music began testing its « play counts » feature for artists’ top songs. It was first noted by some users of Reddit, and is expected to roll out across YouTube Music in the coming weeks. This feature could inform users how many times they had listened to a particular track, as well as the total number of plays the song has received from across the YouTube Music platform.
It follows other additions to the music streaming service, including real-time lyrics and full song credits. « Play counts » has been a top requested feature from users, and is the latest addition by YouTube Music to mirror some of the functionality of Spotify.
As Digital Music News had reported, the video sharing service had previously confirmed that music-video views on YouTube Music are still accounted for in views on YouTube proper.Tracking Actual Listeners
Though not perhaps intended by Google, which owns YouTube Music, the play counts could be seen as being quite significant for artists and the music industry as a whole. It could serve as a benchmark to determine a song’s popularity in real-time, and that would be quite the change from the traditional ways songs have been tracked by industry insiders.
