YouTube kills Stories as Google emphasizes Shorts for fan engagement

YouTube is discontinuing its Stories feature as of June 26th in a move designed to emphasize its TikTok-like YouTube Shorts feature.

Much like Instagram Stories, YouTube Stories were considered an effective audience-building tool until the emergence of TikTok and swipeable short videos.

As of June 26, 2023, the option to create a new YouTube Story will no longer be available. Stories that are already live on that date will expire seven days after they were originally shared.

Now YouTube is touting both Community posts and YouTube Shorts as “alternatives that can deliver valuable audience connections and conversations.”

50 Billion YouTube Shorts A Day

In February, Google said that YouTube Shorts were viewed 50 billion times a day. That’s an impressive number, but still far less than the 140 billion daily views that Meta reported for Instagram Reels last October. TikTok has not shared daily views but said in September 2021 that it had one billion monthly users.

YouTube Shorts has already proven to be an effective marketing tool for many musicians because they can build upon their existing audience on YouTube and the videos they and their fans have posted there.

“In January 2023, fan-created Shorts increased the average artist’s audience of unique viewers by more than 80%.” according to YouTube Head of Music Lyor Cohen. “This means fans on Shorts are NEARLY DOUBLING an artist’s total reach, so artists can spend more time doing what they do best: making great music.”

YouTube Community Posts

Google recently expanded access to YouTube Community posts to millions of creators and added some aspects of Stories into Community posts, including editing tools and the ability for posts to expire after 24 hours alongside new engagement options, including polls, quizzes, filters, and stickers.

Want to learn how to market music on YouTube Shorts?

Check out:

• “How to get started with YouTube Shorts: A 6-minute video guide.”
• “How to use YouTube Shorts for independent musicians“

Bruce Houghton is the Founder and Editor of Hypebot, a Senior Advisor at Bandsintown, President of the Skyline Artists Agency, and a Berklee College Of Music professor.