YouTube has paid more than eight billion dollars to the music industry in the twelve months between July 2024 and July 2025. The company made the announcement on Thursday.
In a statement, YouTube’s Global Head of Music, Lyor Cohen, said that today’s eight billion dollar payout is a testament to the fact that the twin engine of ads and subscriptions is firing on all cylinders. He noted that this number is not an endpoint but represents meaningful, sustained progress in the journey to build a long-term home for every artist, songwriter, and publisher on the global stage. Cohen first announced this milestone during a talk at Billboard Latin Music Week on Wednesday.
This milestone marks a new record for the platform. YouTube’s annual music industry payout increased by two billion dollars since 2022, when the company reported contributing six billion dollars in revenue to the music industry between July 2021 and June 2022. A year before that, in 2021, YouTube announced it had paid out four billion dollars to the industry in a twelve-month period.
This announcement from YouTube comes as Spotify announced earlier this year that it paid out ten billion dollars to the music industry in 2024. The company delivered nine billion dollars in 2023. It is worth noting that the artists themselves do not receive all the money; it also goes to labels, publishers, songwriters, and others.
YouTube says it is seeing momentum from its twin-engine revenue model. The company notes it has over 125 million Music and Premium subscribers globally, including users on trials. The company also said it has two billion logged-in viewers who watch music videos each month.
As the platform’s global footprint continues to expand, so does the potential for artists and songwriters to build long-lasting music careers and forever fans on YouTube.
YouTube is available in more than 100 countries and supports 80 languages. The company announced last month at its Made on YouTube event that it paid more than 100 billion dollars to creators, artists, and media companies in the last four years.