YouTube‘s own music streaming service YouTube Music has officially surpassed 50 million subscribers.  YouTube Music has grown its subscriber base by around 20m in the past 11 months, or around 1.8 million subscribers per month since October 2020. Youtube’s Global Head of Music, Lyor Cohen revealed the news and stated that the service is “seeing impressive growth in countries like South Korea, India, Japan, Russia, and Brazil”.

Max Lousada, CEO of Recorded Music at Warner Music Group, said: “We live in a highly visual attention economy, and YouTube has led the way in UGC and fan expression. Music has always been a pivotal part of their platform, so it’s great to see them become a dynamic force in subscription streaming too.” He continued “We look forward to collaborating on many more creative campaigns that amplify our artists and ignite cultural moments all over the world. Congratulations to Susan, Robert, Lyor and the entire YouTube team.”

Rival Spotify revealed in July that its global Premium Subscriber base grew to 165 million in Q2 2021 (ended June 30), which was up 20% year-on-year, and up by 4%, or 7 million subscribers, on the 158m that Spotify counted at the end of the prior quarter (Q1 2021).

As of June 2019, Apple Music announced it had surpassed 60m subscribers but hasn’t confirmed an updated subscribers number since.