I’m seeing YouTube Music appear in my podcast host stats. Why?

If you’re seeing YouTube Music appear in your podcast stats, you might wonder how they’re getting there.

There are TWO ways to play a podcast in YouTube Music.

One way is to tell YouTube to import your RSS feed from your podcast host. Here is how it works. YouTube will take a copy of your audio and make it into a video. Your podcast host will NOT GET STATS this way, but you will get lots of excellent stats in YouTube Studio, and people can find you in a search on YouTube (the second biggest search engine in the world, some say).

(Here’s why your podcast host won’t get stats).

The other way to play a podcast in YouTube Music… YouTube Music supports RSS feeds fully. Your podcast host WILL GET STATS this way, and it is this that you are probably seeing in the dashboard. But, you won’t get stats on YouTube Studio, and people won’t be able to find you in a search on YouTube.

Google Podcasts users were helped to transfer their subscriptions over to YouTube Music, and it is the second method, RSS feeds, that they used to achieve this. You can also subscribe directly.

So, in short - the stats you’re seeing in your podcast host are from people who are listening to your RSS feed in YouTube Music, probably after transferring their subscription from Google Podcasts.

• Here’s more on YouTube stats, and why you don’t normally see them in your podcast host.