Late to the game: YouTube Music secures over 50m paid subscribers
YouTube has bagged more than 50m paid subscriptions to its music service, after joining late to the paid streaming game.
The video platform, owned by Google, has long been criticized by record labels for giving away music for free.
The platform has not yet revealed how much revenue its streaming subscriptions have pulled in.
Now the fastest growing paid music service in the world, according to Midia Research, YouTube has carved out a solid market share despite joining at the height of Spotify’s reign.
The 50m paying eyes that YouTube has secured will undoubtedly bring a boost to its advertising revenue, which generated $7bn in sales in its most recent quarter – up 84 per cent from just one year ago.
YouTube, while it still plays in the shadows of music streaming heavyweight Spotify, has always been conscious of the weight of its advertising business, which has access to some 2bn users.