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YouTube Music’s Samples feature can now be launched from artist pages, giving listeners a swipeable way to preview an artist’s music before opening a full song, video, album, or mix. Samples is not a separate streaming service or a Premium-only feature. YouTube currently lists it among the features available on ad-supported YouTube Music, although availability and interface details can vary by country, account, platform, and content.
What YouTube Music’s Samples feature does
Samples is a short-form music discovery interface built around brief music-video segments. Instead of opening tracks one at a time, users can move through a vertical stream of previews and decide what to hear next.
The feature first launched in 2023 as a personalized Samples tab. In January 2025, 9to5Google reported a new artist-page entry point, then observed as a “Shorts” button on iOS while it was not visible on Android during that test. That was a snapshot of an early rollout, not a current platform-wide restriction. YouTube’s current help documentation describes Samples entry points on artist, album, playlist, and mix pages.
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The current documentation calls them “short music video segments.” Although launch coverage described the original clips as 30-second previews, YouTube does not document a universal fixed length for every current sample.
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YouTube’s current Samples instructions are the best reference for present-day behavior.
How to open Samples from an artist page
- Open the YouTube Music mobile app.
- Go to an artist’s page.
- Look for the Samples entry point or Samples icon.
- Tap it to begin previewing the artist’s collection.
- Swipe down to move to the next sample.
- Swipe up to return to the previous sample.
- Tap the sample to start or pause it.
You can also open the general discovery feed by launching YouTube Music and tapping Samples in the bottom menu. That feed is personalized across recommendations, new releases, older favorites, and related artists. Artist-page Samples is a more focused starting point, while album-, playlist-, and mix-page entry points tie the preview experience to the selected collection.
YouTube does not publish the complete ranking logic for these different surfaces. Do not assume that every clip in an artist-page feed is limited to officially released music videos by that artist. YouTube Music includes formats such as official videos, art tracks, covers, remixes, live recordings, and other music content.
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Samples is designed to turn a preview into a listening action. Depending on the track and account, users can:
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- Like a song to save it to their library.
- Save it to a playlist.
- Share the sample by link or through another app.
- Open the full video in YouTube Music.
- Visit the related artist or album page.
- Start a mix station based on the song.
- Play the song next or add it to the queue.
- View related Shorts that use the song.
- Use the song in a Short when Use this sound is available.
- Comment where commenting is enabled.
These options are not identical for every track. YouTube says some songs cannot be used in Shorts, so the Use this sound option may be absent because of rights, regional licensing, label or distributor settings, or the eligibility of the particular video.
Is Samples free, or does it require YouTube Music Premium?
You do not need Premium merely to access Samples. YouTube’s current feature comparison lists the Samples tab for ad-supported YouTube Music.
| Capability | Ad-supported YouTube Music | YouTube Music Premium |
|---|---|---|
| Samples | Yes, according to YouTube’s current help page | Yes |
| Music without ads | No | Yes |
| Background music playback | No | Yes |
| Audio-only music playback | No | Yes |
| Music downloads | No | Yes |
Premium becomes relevant after discovery. If Samples helps you find a song but you want to keep listening with the screen off, remove music ads, use audio-only playback, or download music, those are the benefits YouTube associates with Premium. There is no documented evidence that Premium improves Samples recommendations.
Experiences can differ by country or region. For the current feature comparison, see YouTube Music’s ad-supported and Premium feature list and YouTube’s Premium benefits documentation.
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Samples is not the same as YouTube Shorts
The two features look similar because both use vertical, swipe-based video. Samples, however, is a YouTube Music discovery surface built around finding songs and moving to full-length listening. It offers actions such as saving a track, opening its album or artist page, starting a mix, and adding the song to a queue.
Shorts is connected to Samples as an optional follow-on experience. A listener may be able to see Shorts using the song or select Use this sound, but that depends on the track’s rights and eligibility. Samples should therefore be understood as music discovery with Shorts integration, not as the regular Shorts feed inside YouTube Music.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What the feature means for artists
Artist-page Samples gives listeners a faster way to encounter several pieces of an artist’s catalog. A successful preview can lead directly to a full music video, album page, playlist save, share, mix station, or fan-created Short.
Those are meaningful discovery pathways, but they are not guarantees of higher streams, subscribers, reach, or income. YouTube’s creator guidance says YouTube Music helps artists reach audiences and earn revenue from content; it does not promise that appearing in Samples produces a particular performance result.
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Artists also should not assume they can manually submit individual clips to Samples. YouTube describes its music catalog as coming through labels, artists, aggregators, publishers, and other music providers. The feature’s recommendation and selection rules are not fully published.
For the broader role of music partners and artist content on YouTube, see YouTube’s creator-facing music documentation.
Why the Samples button may be missing
The artist-page entry point is documented, but YouTube does not provide a formal troubleshooting guide specifically for a missing artist-page Samples button. Practical checks include:
- Update YouTube Music through your device’s app store.
- Force-close the app and reopen it.
- Confirm that you are signed in.
- Check both the main Samples tab and the artist page.
- Try another artist, album, playlist, or mix.
- Check whether the account is supervised or subject to content restrictions.
- Consider regional differences, account-level testing, or a temporary service issue.
Do not assume that buying Premium will make a missing button appear. Samples is listed as available to ad-supported users, and the missing entry point may instead reflect rollout status, account type, app state, regional availability, or the selected page.
Important limitations
- Availability is not universal: YouTube warns that product experiences can vary by country or region.
- Platform behavior has changed: The January 2025 report captured an iOS observation and an Android omission at that time. It should not be treated as the current Android policy.
- Clip duration is not fixed in current documentation: The original 30-second description should not be applied automatically to every present-day sample.
- Recommendations are not fully explained: YouTube does not publish complete ranking rules for artist-page Samples.
- Rights affect Shorts actions: Not every song can be used with Use this sound.
- Samples is video-led: People seeking uninterrupted audio, background play, or offline downloads may need the relevant Premium benefits.
How useful is artist-page Samples?
Samples is most useful when you want a quick starting point. It reduces the friction of exploring an unfamiliar artist and lets you move from a short preview to a full song, album, playlist, or mix with a few taps.
The trade-off is that rapid swiping is not the same as deliberate album listening. The video-led format can consume more data, recommendation behavior is opaque, and the feed may include music you already know or content that is not exactly what you expected from the artist page. For deeper listening, Samples works best as the first step rather than the destination.
Quick Recap
Sources and timeline
- August 16, 2023: YouTube Music’s Samples feature launched as a personalized short-form music-video discovery experience, as reported by WIRED.
- January 16, 2025: 9to5Google reported an artist-page entry point observed on iOS, with the feature not appearing on Android during that test.
- Current documentation: YouTube now describes Samples access from artist, album, playlist, and mix pages in its official help documentation.
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