YouTube announced on Thursday it now has more than 50 million Music and Premium subscribers, a remarkable growth from the 30 million it reported in December 2020. The Google-owned company says its service is the “fastest growing music subscription out there” according to the MiDIA.
YouTube says the milestone is a combination of YouTube Music and YouTube Premium subscriptions, so it is not known what the exact numbers are for individual services. YouTube also offers a free one-month trial to intending subscribers and it was not mentioned if this number was counted.
“We’ve got killer products in YouTube Music and YouTube Premium that deliver truly unique value to artists and creators and the best experience for music fans and video lovers,” wrote YouTube’s Global Head of Music Lyor Cohen. “We’re seeing impressive growth in countries like Korea, India, Japan, Russia and Brazil where music is a top passion,” he added.
As impressive as the numbers are, YouTube is still some way behind industry leader Spotify, but is looking like it will catch up to Apple Music soon. According to Variety, Spotify’s last reported paid subscribers was around 165 million, while Apple disclosed 60 million subscribers as of June 2019. Financial Times estimates Apple Music could currently have around 78 million subscribers.
While Google has always tried to market the services together, YouTube Music Premium provides ad-free music, background listen and downloads for $9.99 monthly, while YouTube Premium adds ad-free viewing, YouTube Originals and video downloads to all the benefits of YouTube Music Premium for $11.99 monthly.
YouTube is currently testing a cheaper ad-free Premium Lite subscription in some parts of Europe which would see more users join the service. The Google-owned company is currently enjoying unprecedented growth at the moment, it reported crossing the two million creators milestone for its Partner Program in August.
