YouTube paid $8 billion to the music industry in 12 months

YouTube announced Thursday that it paid more than $8 billion to the music industry in the 12 months between July 2024 and July 2025.

“Today’s $8 billion payment is a testament to the fact that the dual engine of advertising and subscriptions is operating at full capacity,” Lyor Cohen, YouTube’s global head of music, said in a statement. “This number is not an end point; it represents meaningful and sustainable progress on our journey to build a long-term home for every artist, songwriter and publisher on the global stage.”

Cohen first announced the milestone during a talk at Billboard Latin Music Week on Wednesday.

The milestone marks a new record for the platform, as YouTube’s annual music industry payments have increased by $2 billion since 2022, when the company announced it contributed $6 billion in revenue to the music industry between July 2021 and June 2022. A year earlier, in 2021, YouTube announced it had paid out $4 billion to the industry in 12 months.

Thursday’s announcement comes as Spotify announced earlier this year that it would pay $10 billion to the music industry in 2024. The company is giving away $9 billion in 2023. It’s worth noting that not all of the money is received by the artists themselves — it also goes to labels, publishers, songwriters and others.

YouTube says it’s seeing momentum from its dual-engine revenue model, noting that it has more than 125 million Music and Premium subscribers globally, including users in trials. The company also said it has two billion registered viewers watching music videos every month.

“As the platform’s global footprint continues to expand, the potential for artists and songwriters to build long-lasting music careers and forever fans on YouTube also expands,” the company wrote in a blog post.

YouTube is available in over 100 countries and supports 80 languages.

The company announced last month at its Made on YouTube event that it has paid out more than $100 billion to creators, artists and media companies in the past four years.