YouTube Makes $8B for Music Industry: Big Reveal at Billboard

• YouTube generated over $8B USD for the music industry in 12 months.
• YouTube Shorts has acted as a major music discovery engine since 2022, with 30B daily views.
• Total music-related payouts from YouTube have surpassed $100B USD in the last four years.

YouTube’s Lyor Cohen informed that the company has generated more than $8 billion USD as payout for the music industry in the 12 months between July 2024 and June 2025. The Global Head of Music first shared the numbers at Billboard Latin Music Week 2025, in a fireside chat with Billboard editor-in-chief Hannah Karp on Wednesday, Oct 22, 2025. 

Cohen emphasized that this billion-worth of "payout is a testament to the fact that the twin engine of ads and subscriptions is firing on all cylinders." This highlights YouTube’s milestone as a step towards creating an everlasting global platform for creators, which has more than 2 billion logged-in users viewing music videos each month, as per an October 2025 statement of YouTube.

The platform also has over 125 million YouTube Music and Premium subscribers globally, including users on trials, and has helped creators, artists, and media companies generate a revenue that surpassed $100 billion USD in total over the last four years, as revealed in a September 2025 statement of the company. “We didn't just create a platform. We built an economy,” said Neel Mohan, the Chief Executive Officer of YouTube.

YouTube Shorts Boosts Music Industry Growth 

From the beginning of the year 2022, YouTube’s short-form content has been helping the music industry surge in a significant manner. Short-form content is already booming all over various social media platforms, and through such videos and reels, new music is getting viral, old songs are reviving, while fusion music is making it more appealing to Gen Z. 

The YouTube Shorts sector generated over 30 billion views per day and had around 1.5 billion logged-in monthly users worldwide as per 2022 data. In the same year, Music Business Worldwide reported Cohen announcing that they will gradually reveal “long-term monetization solutions for Shorts,” which will strengthen creators' revenue support along with the existing $100 million USD Shorts Fund.

YouTube: A “powerhouse” of Music Industry

YouTube's current $8 billion USD figure depicts a steady platform growth and higher monetization per user. In 2022, the company stated roughly $6 billion USD in payouts in 12 months. And in 2021, this figure stood at $4 billion USD.

In an earlier statement provided to Music Business Worldwide, Michael Nash, Executive Vice President of Digital Strategy at Universal Music Group, discussed YouTube's $6 billion success. He described the platform as a "powerhouse of music discovery" that offers "a full-featured journey across content formats for our artists' fans.”

Similarly, other experts like BMI CEO Mike O'Neill and Music Managers Forum’s Annabella Coldrick had applauded YouTube's emphasis on music to boost creator royalties, noting that higher payouts assist artists in the face of growing expenses.

As of 2025, platform payouts, especially those of YouTube, are increasing, which is a great sign for the music industry. However, the profit of the artists remains dependent on the division of revenue. The earnings of artists and rights holders can definitely increase if they negotiate with better terms or build on direct fan support. Moving forward, better payout regulations and new methods for higher revenue creation can determine if these increased profits ‘actually’ support artists at all levels.