MBW’s Stat Of The Week is a series in which we highlight a data point that deserves the attention of the global music industry. Stat Of the Week is supported by music data analytics firm Chartmetric.
The platform, which also operates the TikTok rival Shorts, has surpassed the significant milestone of 125 million paid YouTube Music and Premium subscribers worldwide, including trials.
The milestone means that YouTube added +25 million subscribers over the past 12 months – which works out to slightly over 2 million subs per month on average – since its last subscriber announcement of 100 million in February 2024.
(YouTube Music is available as a standalone subscription platform, or bundled into a YouTube Premium subscription.)
A question the entire music business will likely be asking today, is: How does YouTube’s subscriber growth compare to that of the world’s largest subscription music streaming platform, Spotify?
YouTube’s latest subscriber update was revealed by YouTube’s Global Head of Music, Lyor Cohen, in a letter to the music industry today (March 5) celebrating the subscriber milestone and the platform’s 20th anniversary.
“This year YouTube celebrates its 20th anniversary,” wrote Cohen. “From a simple video, we’ve grown into the largest music stage in the world, reaching over 100 countries in 80 languages. We’ve accomplished so much together over the last 20 years… but if you think we’re slowing down, you’re dead wrong.”
“I’m thrilled to announce that with your partnership, we’ve reached 125 million YouTube Music and Premium subscribers globally, including trials – an incredible milestone that many laughed off as impossible when we first launched.”
Lyor Cohen, YouTube
In the letter, Cohen said that 125 million paid subscribers is an “incredible milestone that many laughed off as impossible when we first launched”.
He added: “This momentum is critical to our goal of becoming the No.1 contributor of revenue to the industry, and we won’t stop until we get there.”
MBW asked Lyor Cohen more about that goal in a wide-ranging interview to follow later. YouTube last announced in September 2022 that it had paid music rightsholders over USD $6 billion in the 12 months to the end of June 2022.
Elsewhere in today’s letter, Cohen explained how YouTube is “feeding [its] subscriptions funnel”, by expanding the platform’s Premium Lite pilot to US users.
This lower-priced Premium tier lets users watch “most videos on YouTube ad-free,” Cohen explained, “though users may see ads on music content and Shorts, and as they search and browse”.
A Premium Lite subscription will cost $7.99 per month. A full YouTube Premium subscription costs $13.99 per month for an individual plan in the United States. A standalone YouTube Music Premium plan costs $10.99 per month.
Cohen wrote in his letter today that, “Premium Lite can benefit our partners, while giving users more choice”.
According to Cohen, in YouTube’s early Premium Lite pilots, the platform “saw that more Lite members upgraded to YouTube Premium than Premium members downgraded to Premium Lite”.
Also in his letter, Cohen said that YouTube’s “commitment to music fans and artists demands we focus on leading the industry in visual storytelling” and predicted the “rebirth of the music video”.
Said Cohen: “As I look forward, I’m foreseeing a renaissance of the music video. It’s not about having the biggest production budget; it’s about sharing authentic hero content that music fans can’t unsee.
Cohen also highlighted the potential of AI “to help bring these visual stories to life across all YouTube formats and surfaces”.
“We also want to make it easier for every artist and fan to create,” said Cohen. “That’s why we’re investing heavily in AI tools like Dream Screen in Shorts which is now powered by Veo 2,Google DeepMind’s newest state-of-the-art generative video model”.
Dream Screen is a feature that lets Shorts users generate AI backgrounds with just a text prompt.
According to Cohen, “with this new integration, artists and fans can create standalone video clips for their Shorts, broadening the horizons to tell visual stories with music”.
Cohen’s letter also pointed to Nielsen rankings, which show that for two consecutive years, YouTube was “the No. 1 streaming platform in watch time in the US, with more than 1 billion hours of content viewed daily on TV sets in the US”.
Added Cohen: “Our global reach empowers fans to discover new music on Shorts, which now generates over 70 billion daily views, and on connected TVs – the fastest-growing surface for YouTube and the primary viewing device in the US.
“The trend of artists delivering premium content directly to the big screen continues to grow, whether through music videos or live performances at iconic events like Coachella.” YouTube’s Global Head of Music noted that more than 50% of Coachella’s live stream viewership in 2024 was on connected TVs. “We’ll build on that momentum next month,” added Cohen.
He concluded the letter by writing: “I know there’s uncertainty in the world and in our industry, but in my 9 years at YouTube and 40 years in the business, I’ve learned that uncertainty and challenges signal great opportunity. I cannot wait to see what the next 20 years of YouTube holds.”
Chartmetric is the all-in-one platform for artists and music industry professionals, providing comprehensive streaming, social, and audience data for everyone to create successful careers in music.Music Business Worldwide
