YouTube just hit a new milestone. They’ve reached 125m Music and Premium subscribers. That’s about 25 million new subscribers since February 2024.
YouTube officially hit 125m subscribers for their Music and Premium tiers combined. This is up 25 million from last year. However, it’s important to be aware, these statistics do include those who have signed up to a free trial of the service.
So, the actual figure of those paying for the service isn’t quite accurate. YouTube said their goal is to be the number one contributor of revenue within their industry. With numbers climbing so rapidly, it’s possible they will reach this.
They’re currently falling behind Spotify however. Spotify announced in January they’ve paid $10bn to the music industry in 2024 alone. YouTube haven’t seen figures like this in quite some time, so they have a long way to go.
In 2022, YouTube revealed they had paid $6bn into the music industry from July 2021 to June 2022. With changes in economy, the amount of music artists growing, as well as the increase in music subscriptions, this number is the most comparable with Spotify’s data.
Lyor Cohen, head of YouTube for music has said they want to overtake Spotify in 2025. With this, they have added YouTube Premium Lite, allowing listeners to have an ad-free service without the cost of the full plan.
However, with that, adverts are not removed from music videos or Shorts, so how can this compete with Spotify who offer ad-free music listening? Cohen has suggested that by using Premium Lite, users are more likely to go full Premium though.
We guess, the battle is on. Who will win? YouTube have the upper-hand with offering all kinds of content across their platforms, however, Spotify are the reigning champions for music streaming. It will be interesting to see if Premium Lite really does change things.
