To find songs trending on YouTube Shorts in a specific country, use YouTube's own "Top Songs on Shorts" chart at charts.youtube.com, which ranks songs by how many Shorts were made with them, and pair it with a country's most popular music videos to see which songs are crossing from Shorts into full listens. The old YouTube Trending page no longer exists, and since January 2026 YouTube's data doesn't flow into Billboard either, so YouTube's own surfaces are now the main public record.

Our free Sound Pulse tracker shows the most popular music videos on YouTube in 16 countries and finds recent Shorts that mention each song, using only YouTube's official API.

Where did the YouTube Trending page go?

YouTube retired it. In July 2025 YouTube announced it would remove the Trending page and Trending Now list, saying visits had dropped significantly over five years because people discover trends through recommendations, Shorts, search and comments (9to5Google). The replacement is category charts on YouTube Charts, starting with Trending Music Videos, Weekly Top Podcast Shows and Trending Movie Trailers. Creators keep the Inspiration tab in YouTube Studio.

Then, effective mid-January 2026, YouTube stopped supplying data to Billboard. YouTube's global head of music, Lyor Cohen, objected to Billboard's formula weighting subscription streams above ad-supported ones; Billboard narrowed its ratio from 1:3 to 1:2.5, which YouTube said wasn't enough. The withdrawal covers YouTube Music, the main YouTube platform and Shorts, and YouTube pointed fans to charts.youtube.com (Rolling Stone, The Hollywood Reporter).

The upshot for artists and marketers: if you want to know what's moving on Shorts, Billboard won't tell you. YouTube's own charts and data will.

What does YouTube's "Top Songs on Shorts" chart actually count?

Creations, not views. YouTube's help page says the daily Top Songs on Shorts chart ranks songs "based on the total number of Shorts created that feature the song", and the weekly version uses the same measure (YouTube Help). The other charts measure different things:

YouTube chartWhat it ranks byCadence
Top Songs on ShortsNumber of Shorts created featuring the songDaily (top 50) and weekly
Top SongsViews across official video, user videos using the official song, and lyric videosWeekly
Top Music VideosViews of official music videosDaily and weekly
Trending"Popularity upon release"A few times a day
Top ArtistsViews across the artist's catalogueWeekly (top 100)

YouTube says paid advertising views don't count towards these charts, and songs that sit on a chart for months without real growth may be removed. Its music charts are available in 61 countries or regions, though it doesn't say which charts exist in which country.

This distinction is the most useful thing on the page. A song can top Shorts creations (lots of people making videos with it) while barely moving the Top Songs chart (few people listening to it in full). That gap is the same one TikTok data shows: Chartmetric found Spotify streams per TikTok post for songs crossing 100,000 posts fell from about 738 in 2020 to about 275 in 2025 (Chartmetric). Reading both YouTube charts side by side tells you whether a Shorts trend is turning into listening in a given country.

How do you check a song's trend in a specific country?

Use four sources, from broadest to most specific:

  1. YouTube Charts, country view. Set the country, then compare Top Songs on Shorts with Top Songs and Top Music Videos for the same week. Rising on the first but not the others means sound adoption without listening, so far.
  2. Sound Pulse country pages. Our country pages show YouTube's own list of the most popular music videos in each country, read through the official YouTube Data API in YouTube's order, for the US, UK, India, Brazil, Japan, Nigeria and ten more. Each song links to Shorts we found that name it. To be precise about what this is: it's YouTube's most-popular music video list, not a Shorts chart, and our Shorts list is a sample of videos whose title or description names the song, since a Short can use a song without naming it.
  3. The API, if you build your own. YouTube's Data API lets developers request the mostPopular chart with a regionCode (a two-letter country code) and a videoCategoryId to narrow to one category (YouTube Data API docs). That's how Sound Pulse gets its country lists, and it's the compliant route: no scraping.
  4. YouTube Studio's Inspiration tab if you're a creator looking for ideas on your own channel.

Why compare countries at all?

Because songs rarely trend everywhere at once, and the gaps are where the opportunity is.

YouTube's 2023 launch of the Shorts charts included region-specific charts for 12 markets, including India, Brazil, Mexico, Japan and South Korea (Music Business Worldwide). Several of those markets are also where recorded music is growing fastest: the IFPI's 2026 report put 2025 growth at 14.1% in Brazil and 13.3% in Mexico, against 3.3% in the US (Digital Music News).

India is a special case worth knowing about: TikTok has been blocked there since 2020 under Section 69A of the IT Act (Government of India press release), so TikTok trend tools tell you nothing about one of the largest short-video audiences. YouTube Shorts data does.

Practical uses:

  • Artists and labels: a song climbing Shorts creations in Mexico but not the US tells you where to send creator budget and which language to brief in.
  • Managers: a song with high Shorts creations but flat full-song views needs a better route from clip to song (a clear hook start, a pinned link, an official sound). See how to set your TikTok start time.
  • Brands: spotting a trend early is only half the job. The other half is whether you're allowed to use it.

Not because it's trending. YouTube's Audio Library is the music YouTube describes as royalty-free for your videos and won't be claimed through Content ID on YouTube, but YouTube also says it can't give guidance on music issues off the platform (YouTube Help). A chart hit from a major label is almost never in it.

And labels are suing. In October 2026 Warner sued companies tied to Ray-Ban and Oakley's owner over 427 songs used in posts including on YouTube (Law Commentary). Before using any trending song in a brand video, check it with our free song rights tool, and read Can brands use trending TikTok sounds? for how the 2026 cases play out.

One more creator-side rule: YouTube says Shorts longer than one minute with an active copyright claim are blocked (YouTube Help). If you brief creators to use a song in Shorts, keep them under 60 seconds.

How do you track your own song on Shorts?

If you're the artist or label, add the song to Sound Pulse by pasting its YouTube link (official audio or music video). Its page appears after the next update, and if you sign in and follow it, we also look for Shorts that mention it. Sound Pulse shows YouTube's own numbers with YouTube's attribution and never estimates or fills in missing ones. TikTok is coming later; Instagram has no public source, so we show it as not available.

If you want more Shorts made with the song, you can pay creators for the views they deliver rather than per post. Our sound campaign cost calculator shows what that costs compared with flat creator fees.

FAQ

Is there an official chart of the most-used songs on YouTube Shorts?

Yes. YouTube Charts publishes Top Songs on Shorts, daily and weekly. YouTube says songs are ranked by the total number of Shorts created that feature the song, not by views.

What happened to the YouTube Trending page?

YouTube announced in July 2025 that it was retiring the Trending page and pointing people to YouTube Charts, saying visits to Trending had dropped sharply over five years.

Does YouTube still count towards the Billboard charts?

No. YouTube stopped supplying data to Billboard from mid-January 2026 after a dispute over how Billboard weights ad-supported versus paid streams, and points people to charts.youtube.com instead.

No. Trending status is not a licence. Check the song in our free song rights tool and in YouTube's own Audio Library before using it in a brand video.

Which countries does Sound Pulse cover?

Sixteen: the US, UK, India, Canada, Australia, Germany, France, Brazil, Mexico, Spain, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, the Philippines and Nigeria.

Sources