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$6 billion paid to the music industry in 12 months

In the 12 months between July 2021 and June 2022, YouTube paid over $6B to the music industry.

Last year we announced a $4B revenue contribution to the music industry, and our foot is still planted on the gas pedal: In the 12 months between July 2021 and June 2022, YouTube paid over $6B to the music industry. This is a $2B increase from the $4B contribution we announced in 2021.

We want our twin engine of ads and subscriptions to be the #1 contributor of revenue to the industry by 2025. That’s why 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.1

We also pioneered the monetization of user generated content (UGC), which we knew could 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.2

  • Shorts generates 30 billion views per day, with 1.5 billion monthly logged-in users3 — and we’re just getting started. In addition to our $100M Shorts Fund, we’re creating long-term monetization solutions for Shorts, and we’ll have more to share on this soon.

As our twin engine continues to hum, we’re seeing profound changes in music. We must accompany this movement to be the best place for every music fan. Fans want to discover, consume, and participate in music across multiple content formats, and only YouTube can deliver that entire experience in one place. We just saw this play out with BlackPink’s “Pink Venom” release. Fans went from the music video teaser, to the Shorts challenge, to the live-streamed premiere of the music video, and beyond. Then WOW: “Pink Venom” became the biggest 24-hour music video debut of 2022, and the third-largest 24-hour music video debut of all time.

Building a connected music experience across all music formats is great for fans, but it must also be great for artists. All artists. Whether they want to be occasionally brilliant or “always on,” it’s our mission to help them forge their own path on YouTube and develop financially sustainable careers.

With love and respect,

Lyor Cohen


1. (July 2021 to June 2022 vs July 2020 to June 2021)
2. (July 2021-June 2022)
3. As of April 2022

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