Six years after it launched subscription services, YouTube has reached 50 million Music and Premium subscribers.
The figures were revealed in a blog post by YouTube’s Global Head of Music Lyor Cohen.
“YouTube’s twin engine growth across ads and subscriptions is fueling our goal to become the music industry’s number one driver of revenue,” he said, adding that YouTube had paid out $4 billion to the music industry over the last 12 months.
Cohen believes YouTube Music and YouTube Premium can offer an experience for both artists and fans. He gave the example of Lil Nas X and the music video for Industry Baby, which premiered on YouTube and also gave fans the opportunity to learn the lyrics, listen to the rapper’s back catalogue and create their own YouTube short.