Youtube has announced that its Music and Premium subscribers have surpassed 50 million, a milestone the company accredits to content diversity on the platform. As part of the YouTube Premium subscription plan, its Music streaming service integrates “watching, listening, and engaging”. And with a growing subscribers base, the service is emerging as a competing music streaming service against established services like Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, and others.
YouTube accredits Music and Premium over 50 million subscribers to its unique immersive experience
The announcement post highlighted the significance of Music and Premium subscriptions for monetization on the platform to support creators and artists. The company wrote:
we’ve crossed 50 million Music and Premium subscribers, including trialers. It’s an honor to build a membership that allows people to more deeply immerse themselves in music, learning, fashion, gaming, and more, all the while supporting the creators and artists that make it possible. Music and Premium subscriptions are key pillars of YouTube’s monetization, enabling unique content and communities to flourish.
The success is also attributed to YouTube Music and Premium demand in established and emerging music markets like Korea, India, Japan, Russia, and Brazil. Celebrating the milestone, the company’s Global Head of Music, Lyor Cohen, wrote:
We’ve got killer products in YouTube Music and YouTube Premium that deliver truly unique value to artists and creators and the best experience for music fans and video lovers. We’re in our own lane — there’s no other place where fans can get uninterrupted access to the largest and most diverse catalogue of music, artists and culture. We’re making it easy for music fans to go deep and find their thing — whether that’s on YouTube or the YouTube Music app.
However, an investigation of the music streaming industry by British regulators, to pay artists a fair amount in royalties, revealed that YouTube has the worst 0.15 cents per/stream rate. British MPs said that “it accounts for 51% of music streaming while contributing 7% of music industry revenue.”
