YouTube announced it gave the music industry more than $8 billion in the year between July 2024 and June 2025. This was a new record for the video-sharing platform. This payment is $2 billion more than in 2022, showing that its financial contributions to the sector have been consistently growing.
Lyor Cohen, YouTube’s Global Head of Music, said in a statement, “Today’s $8 billion payout shows that the twin engine of ads and subscriptions is working at full speed.” He stressed that this number is not the end but rather “meaningful, ongoing progress” in creating a long-term home for artists, songwriters, and publishers on a worldwide platform.
YouTube’s “twin-engine” revenue model, which combines ads from free viewers with paid subscriptions, is what drives this growth. The company reported that it had well over 125 million YouTube Music and Premium subscribers around the world, including people who were trying it out, and two billion logged-in users who watch music videos every month.
The announcement makes YouTube seem like a major financial player in the music industry, but Spotify is still on top, having paid out $10 billion to the music industry in 2024. It is important to remember that these multi-billion dollar payments go to different rights holders, such as record companies, music distributors, and composers, and not directly to the artists themselves.
