YouTube says it has paid the music industry $6 billion in ad revenue sharing and subscriptions for the 12 months between July 2021 and June 2022. This is a $2 billion increase from the $4 billion contribution announced in 2021.
The announcement was made by Lyor Cohen, Global Head of Music for YouTube.
YouTube, owned by Google, says it wants to be the #1 contributor of revenue to the music industry by 2025. YouTube is monetizing all music formats (short & long form video, audio tracks, Live, etc.), on all platforms (desktop, tablet, mobile, and TV), in over 100 countries. And overall watch time of music content on YouTube across desktop, tablet, mobile, and TV continues to grow year over year.
The company has also pioneered the monetization of user generated content (UGC), which has become a powerful engine for the industry:
— UGC drove over 30% of payouts for artists, songwriters and rights-holders, for the second year in a row.
— Shorts generates 30 billion views per day, with 1.5 billion monthly logged-in users.
