Online video sharing and social media streaming platform,YouTube has hit a milestone as it now boasts of about 50 million Music and Premium subscribers on its site. This is a 30 percent spike from the December 2021 figure, an indication that a lot of YouTube users are satisfied with the service that they are willing to upgrade from the free experience to actually paying for the premium YouTube version.
YouTube, the second most visited website, with more than one billion monthly userswho collectively watch more than one billion hours of videos each day did not however intimate the public how the 50 million subscribers are divided as it remains unclear if the users were wither subscribed to YouTube Music or Premium or is they are using the free one-month trial.
It would be recalled that after the 1.65 billion dollars purchase of YouTube by Google in October 2006, of YouTube has also changed its business model, as it no longer generates revenue from advertisements alone, but additionally offers paid content such as movies and exclusive content.
Google in a recent blog post has described YouTube as the fastest-growing music-subscription service, while addingthat “Music and Premium subscriptions are key pillars of YouTube’s monetization, which enables unique content and communities to flourish.”
It later when on to posit that it has paid out 4 billion dollars to the music industry in the past 12 months.
Mr. Lyor Cohen, the Global Head of Music in a letter to YouTube said:
“When Lil Nas X released the music video for “INDUSTRY BABY” with Jack Harlow, fans from all over the world got to watch the Premiere of the new visual all together for the first time. But the fan experience and engagement with Lil Nas X’s new release didn’t stop there”.
“They were able to learn the lyrics, hear the artists break down the meaning, create a YouTube Short with the track, listen to the rapper’s back catalogue and learn more about the rapper’s story in his own words. No other platform facilitates this level of depth and exploration for music fans,” Cohen added.
At $9.99 in the United States, the YouTube Music gives users the opportunity to listen and download ad-free music. The YouTube Premium is priced at $11.99 a month in the U.S and allows subscribers to access all YouTube Music benefits, with the leverage of also downloading and watching regular videos ad-free.
The subscribers of the Premium service will also have the option of playing videos in the background as they work on another app, even when their phone is locked.
This entails that users who prefer to watch non-music videos on the streaming platform will have additional benefits that will have a much better experience in exchange for money when they subscribe.
Ayoola Faseyi, an Abuja based Journalist with interest in Technology and Politics. He is a versatile writer with articles in many renowned News Journals. He is the Co-Founder of media brand, The Vent Republic.
