, the world's largest music streaming platform, announced that it paid more than $6 billion to the music industry in the 12 months from July 2021 to June 2022, about $2 billion more than it said it paid the first 12 months. Like last year, the news was announced in the form of a blog post by Lyor Cohen, the music director of the platform.
Although there is not much specific content, this article does outline some contributing factors. Cohen wrote: "We hope that by 2025, our dual advertising and subscription engines will become the number one contributor to industry revenue. That's why YouTube monetizes all music formats (short and long videos, audio tracks, live streaming, etc.) on all platforms in more than 100 countries (desktops, tablets, mobiles and TVs). And the overall viewing time of YouTube's music content on desktops, tablets, mobiles and TVs continues to grow year by year."
He continued: "We also pioneered it." The monetization of User Generated Content (UGC) is something we know that could be a powerful engine for the industry: UGC has brought over 30% of its rewards to artists, songwriters and rights holders for the second consecutive year; Shorts generates 30 billion views a day and 1.5 billion logged in monthly users. ”
However, despite these numbers being very large, trade groups and other agencies in the music industry have disputed YouTube’s royalty regime over the years because of its lack of transparency and many believe that the fees paid are insufficient. Just a day ago, a report by Billboard filed some detailed allegations and was supported by some unnamed sources, saying YouTube's rights management system was ripe for mistakes and abuse.
However, its influence and success are irrefutable. Cohen pointed out in his blog post that BlackPink's recent Pink Venom single is a music that fans can discover, consume and engage in in a variety of content formats, while only YouTube can provide the entire experience in one place. “Fans go from previews of music videos to Shorts challenges to live premiere of music videos, and more. And then it’s amazing: “Pink Venom” becomes the biggest 24-hour music video premiere of 2022 and the third largest 24-hour music video of all time.”
He concluded by writing: “Building a connected music experience in all music formats is great for fans, but it has to be great for artists as well. All artists. Whether they want to be good occasionally or ‘always on the road’, our mission is to help them open their own paths on YouTube and develop economically sustainable causes.”
’s announcement comes before a major change in YouTube. Late last month, Chief Commercial Officer Robert Kyncl said he will leave the company in early 2023 after more than 12 years as a senior executive of the video giant. Kyncl previously played a major role in moving Netflix from DVD to digital, helping YouTube grow into a multi-billion dollar big company and playing a significant role in its engagement with the music industry.
succeeded Kync as Chief Commercial Officer Mary Ellen Coe, who worked at Google for 10 years and most recently as President of Google Customer Solutions, overseeing the global advertising business of internet companies for mid- and small businesses.
