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YouTube has 80 million premium subscribers

By | Published on Thursday 10 November 2022

YouTube

Want a YouTube stat to mull over for the rest of the day? OK, if you insist. YouTube now has more than 80 million premium subscribers worldwide. So that’s people signed up to the YouTube Music subscription service and the wider YouTube premium package. And that’s 30 million more than when the Google company last discussed its premium user numbers last year.

YouTube doesn’t break down that 80 million into those who specifically signed up for the premium music service and those who subscribed to the wider YouTube premium offer, mainly to get rid of the endless annoying ads that are standard these days on the main YouTube platform.

The full premium package does include YouTube Music, of course, which means that the music service does technically now have 80 million people signed up. Though our survey of YouTube Premium subscribers revealed that 100% of those people have never used YouTube Music. OK, I surveyed myself. And a one-person survey isn’t all that conclusive. But, for a certain slice of the YouTube Premium subscriber base, the music app won’t be the attraction.

That said, there’s no denying that YouTube Music is now a key service for the music industry, and the wider YouTube ecosystem is even more important.

After all, even those YouTube Premium users who don’t use the YouTube Music app are likely consuming plenty of music through other YouTube channels. At least one of the Premium subscribers we surveyed occasionally falls into a music-centric reaction video hole on the main YouTube site, though it wouldn’t be fair to reveal that sad person’s identity. The survey was definitely confidential.

Either way, YouTube’s Head Of Music, Lyor Cohen, sees the latest stat brag as being primarily a music stat brag. “I am so proud and humbled to share that we’ve reached over 80 million subscribers on YouTube Music and Premium”, he says. “Alongside our music industry partners, we’ve been working hard to make YouTube the best place for every fan and every artist, and today’s news marks a significant milestone in that journey. We’re not stopping here. We’ve got lots to do and look forward to driving more growth and contributions back to the music industry”.

So that’s all good. Hey, Cohen even wrote another blog post to celebrate the 80 million milestone being passed. If someone makes a video of themselves reacting to it, maybe I’ll tune in.



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