YouTube Music Top Listener Badges: A Confusing Rollout

Double Badges Disappeared, Actual Top Listener Badges Now Visible

YouTube Music recently introduced the “badges” feature, where users can earn rewards for being a “Top Listener” of an artist/band in any given month. However, things took an unexpected turn when existing badges were duplicated instead of displaying the new Top Listener badge for December 2024.

Earning Badges on YouTube Music

To access your badges, open YouTube Music on Android or iOS and tap your profile avatar in the top-right corner for “Badges.” You can also share a nice portrait graphic by tapping a card > Share > Save image.

What Went Wrong?

So far, new Top Listener badges for the previous month have been appearing on the second or third day of the new month. Instead of receiving new badges for December over the past 24 hours, users have been seeing their November badges repeated, including the same background color and date.

What Does This Mean for Users?

This is clearly a bug that YouTube will hopefully address by issuing the actual Top Listener badges for December. Despite the issue, users have been generally pleased with the feature.

Badges Beyond Music

Outside of music, you can also receive badges for being one of the first set of paid members of a creator’s channel, correctly completing quizzes, or having a creator heart your comment. You can also access Badges in the main YouTube app.