YouTube Paid the Music Industry Over $8 Billion in Just One Year — But It’s Still Behind Spotify

YouTube announced Thursday that the company paid out more than $8 billion to the music industry in the course of just one year. These figures, shared by YouTube Global Head of Music Lyor Cohen, were calculated by the company’s payments between July 2024 and June 2025.

“Today’s $8 billion payout is a testament to the fact that the twin engine of ads and subscriptions is firing on all cylinders,” Lyor said in a press statement. “This number is not an endpoint; it represents meaningful, sustained progress in our journey to build a long-term home for every artist, songwriter and publisher on the global stage.”

These numbers are a step up from what YouTube has contributed to the music industry in past years, with their 2022 figure coming in $2 billion lower at roughly $6 billion.

However, this still places the music streamer behind its competitor Spotify, which noted in January that they paid a record $10 billion in 2024 alone (In fairness, YouTube has a lower subscriber count than its competitor, with the company noting that it has “over 125 million Music and Premium subscribers globally” in comparison to Spotify’s reported 276 million).

YouTube’s stark increase in payment comes at a time when the company has taken heat for the contributions it gives to its artists and musicians. In September, Irving Azoff, legendary music mogul and chairman/CEO of The Azoff Company, visited TheGrill to speak with TheWrap’s Sharon Waxman in a keynote session about the state of the industry. Here, he took YouTube to task for its treatment of artists.

“I’m fiercely protective of artists rights, and YouTube is by far the worst offender,” he said at the DGA Theater in Los Angeles. “I’m really not fond when companies take advantage of creators. But YouTube has, in my opinion, invented new words for the way to bully people.”

Yet, it appears YouTube is actively combating this notion given the latest update.

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