Today, YouTube announced that it surpassed 80 million YouTube Music and Premium subscribers globally, including customers using free trials. The year-over-year increase of 30 million subscribers is noteworthy and puts the company on track to becoming one of the top streaming music providers. In September 2021, YouTube reported 50 million Music and Premium subs.
“We’ve worked hard to build an experience that puts people first, and we’ll continue providing the best, uninterrupted experience across all of YouTube, even on the go,” Adam Smith, VP Product, YouTube, said in a statement.
Lyor Cohen, Global Head of Music at YouTube and Google, said, “Alongside our music industry partners, we’ve been working hard to make YouTube the best place for every fan and every artist, and today’s news marks a significant milestone in that journey . We’re not stopping here. We’ve got lots to do and look forward to driving more growth and contributions back to the music industry.”
In YouTube’s official blog post, Cohen reiterated that, between July 2021 and June 2022, YouTube contributed $6 billion in revenue to the music industry, 30% of which was from user-generated content. The company made the initial announcement in Sept.
YouTube Music Premium costs $9.99/month and allows users to download and listen to music without ads. YouTube Music recently introduced an iOS 16 Lock Screen widget, “Recently Played,” which allows users to quickly access recently played songs, albums, playlists and videos from their lock screen.
YouTube Premium is $11.99/month and lets subscribers watch and download ad-free YouTube videos as well as access all the perks of YouTube Music. YouTube ran a short-lived test in October that asked free users to upgrade to Premium watch videos in 4K. Now, all users can watch high-resolution videos without paying for a premium subscription. A few days after YouTube ended the test, the company announced it would increase the price of YouTube Premium’s family plan.
Despite the new milestone, it’s still behind Spotify, Apple Music and Tencent, a China-only music service. Spotify reports it third quarter earnings last month, revealing a total of 195 million premium subscribers and 456 million monthly active users. In July, Apple noted that it had 860 million paid subscriptions across the App Store, Apple TV+, Apple Music, cloud services and its other businesses. Tencent Music Entertainment Group has about 82.7 million subscribers across its three music streaming apps.
