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YouTube Music and Premium Reports 80M Paid Subscribers; Jumping Nearly 40% Year-Over-Year

Matt Tamanini
Matt is The Streamable's News Editor and resident Ohio State fan. You can find him covering everything from breaking news to streaming comparisons to sporting events. Matt is extremely well-rounded, having worked for the Big Ten Conference, BroadwayWorld, True Crime Obsessed, and Land-Grant Holy Land before joining TS. He cut the cord in 2014, streams with a Fire TV, and his favorite titles include "The Bear," "The Great British Bake Off," "Mrs. Davis," and anything on the Hallmark Channel.
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Matt Tamanini

YouTube has long been the No. 1 source of streaming video around the world, but it appears that it is also making major inroads toward becoming the top streaming music provider as well. On Wednesday, YouTube disclosed that YouTube’s Music and Premium services had grown their collective customer base to 80 million paid subscribers worldwide.

That is a year-over-year jump of 30 million people and 37.5% over the 50M reported in September 2021. The new figure would place the service in range with the largest music streaming platforms in the world. Spotify, Apple Music, and Tencent — which is only available in China — are already at the top of the list, but numbers for all of the services are a little hazy depending on how subscriptions are counted, including when it comes to free trials.

Considering that so much music is available for free on YouTube, including from official sources, the subscription numbers are considerably staggering. Since launching in 2018, YouTube Music and Premium have worked to partner with the music industry in an effort to fairly compensate artists and rights holders. Of the $50 billion that the streamer reports having paid out over the last three years, according to Variety, $6 billion went directly to the music industry between July 2021 and June 2022.

Even compared to subscription video streaming services, it is becoming a relevant competitor. It comparison, Disney+, which has 164.2 million subscribers globally and 46.4 million subscribers in the U.S. and Canada. While Netflix has 223 million subscribers worldwide, it is larger than their North American base which has ~74 million subscribers.

Last month, Google — YouTube’s parent company — announced that it would be raising the price of YouTube Premium by 25% up to $22.99 for the family plan. At the moment, it seems that YouTube is not raising the price of an individual Premium account, which will remain at $11.99 per month. At the time of the announcement, the streamer said that the price hike was done “to continue delivering great service and features.”

YouTube Premium — which is not part of the company’s live TV streaming service — allows users to watch videos ad-free, play them when using other apps, and download videos to watch offline and also includes access to YouTube Music Premium. The family plan allows for up to six individuals to use the same Premium account.

In October, YouTube had experimented with placing the highest quality versions of some videos behind the Premium paywall, but decided to end the practice shortly after it was discovered.

Matt Tamanini
Matt is The Streamable's News Editor and resident Ohio State fan. You can find him covering everything from breaking news to streaming comparisons to sporting events. Matt is extremely well-rounded, having worked for the Big Ten Conference, BroadwayWorld, True Crime Obsessed, and Land-Grant Holy Land before joining TS. He cut the cord in 2014, streams with a Fire TV, and his favorite titles include "The Bear," "The Great British Bake Off," "Mrs. Davis," and anything on the Hallmark Channel.
Read full bio ›
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