YouTube Reveals New Features to Help Artists Reward Superfans

Superfan monetization has become a major focus for music platforms recently, somewhat overshadowing playlists and stream counts. Music streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music, or Amazon Music have been investing heavily in tools and features that help musicians nurture their communities and recognise their most dedicated fans.

For artists, these tools offer ways to foster loyalty, increase visibility, and generate additional income through innovative approaches. Meanwhile, for fans, they provide an opportunity to feel valued and significant in their favourite artist’s journey beyond simply pressing play. And for many of the music platforms, they may offer new revenue opportunities beyond standard subscription fees.

Back in September 2025, Lyon Cohen, YouTube’s Global Head of Music, announced that YouTube is also introducing new features to ‘supercharge music fandom.’ “Today you’ve heard how we’re building tools that bring creators and their passionate communities together…. And when we talk about passion, there’s no community more powerful than music,” Cohen said during the annual Made on YouTube event.

One of the key features to be introduced is a new release countdown and pre-save features, enabling artists to generate excitement around upcoming releases and thereby attract attention and anticipation to their music even before it is released. When an artist drops a music video or visualizer track, fans can click to pre-save the upcoming album, triggering automatic notifications on the day of release.

Moreover, once an artist announces an upcoming album or single, a countdown to the release will be activated on the album detail page, artist detail page, and album shelf, so fans can see exactly when it will be available.

Fans who participate during the countdown moments will receive badges to display on their profiles and share outside the platform, thereby demonstrating their status as early supporters.

Another feature that YouTube is working on is merchandise drops, enabling artists to offer their merchandise exclusively to their top viewers, building on an already existing merchandise integration.

The functionality will enable artists to schedule specific merch drops during live moments like premieres and after-parties, providing an opportunity for their biggest fans to be the first to purchase their favorite artist’s exclusive merch.

“One of the things that artists had said to us was, hey, wouldn’t it be great if we could actually do merch drops in the middle of those moments?” said T. Jay Fowler, Senior Director of Product Management for Music/Podcasts at YouTube, explaining the decision to develop such a feature.

The merchandise functionality is currently developed as a pilot program only for the US market, but its expansion to other English-speaking markets and globally is expected sometime next year.

Finally, YouTube is unveiling a feature called “just-for-fans-video drops” that will let artists share exclusive video content, like behind-the-scenes clips, directly with their most dedicated fans, and send special messages to thank them for their support.

The feature is scheduled to launch early next year and is currently being tested with select artists, their managers, and labels in the so-called “trusted tester” phase before the official roll-out.