Apple Music for Artists Now Displays Real-Time Listening Info

Apple Music for Artists now displays real-time listening information. Curious how it works? Here’s a quick overview of the feature.

The Apple Music for Artists dashboard features a few key metrics that display data about how your music is performing on Apple Music. Some of those key metrics include total plays, average daily listeners, song purchases, and shazams. But a new ‘listening now’ widget highlights how many Apple Music listeners you have engaging with your music at any time.

This real-time data can give artists an overview of who is currently streaming their music on Apple Music. Selecting the widget will provide a detailed overview of an artists’ ‘Listening Now’ trends from the past 48 hours. Some of the highlights of that data include maximum listeners, average listeners, and your top performing songs.

• Maximum Listeners | Highlights the top number of listeners in the last 48-hour period
• Average Listeners | Highlights the average listener rate over the last 40-hour period
• Top Songs Now | A quick snapshot of the top-six most played songs

Don’t see a listening now widget? Apple notes that its a normal part of the Apple Music for Artists experience, for privacy reasons.

“There is a minimum listener threshold in order to display Listening Now analytics,” the help document notes. “You may notice gaps within your data reporting period when that threshold has not been met.” If you’re a relatively small artist just getting started, you may not see this data yet.

Aside from viewing who is currently listening to your music, you can also get a pretty good idea of where your fans are from in the world. The Places tab in Artist Analytics showcases where listeners are by city, state, country, or region. Artists can use filters to help track the popularity of new releases, which can give them some idea of where to schedule their next tour stops.