YouTube Music passes 50M subscribers making it the ‘fastest-growing music subscription service’

YouTube Music has passed 50 million subscribers, adding 20 million in less than a year.

That 50 million total includes both direct YouTube Music subscriptions and those bundled with a YouTube Premium subscription.

While still smaller than Spotify (165 million paying subscribers) and Apple Music (60 million as of mid-2019), YouTube Music’s rapid gains are notable at a time when the pace of subscriber growth at its rivals appears to be slowing.

“YouTube Music is the fastest growing music subscription service out there,” said YouTube‘s Global Head of Music, Lyor Cohen in his latest industry newsletterciting research from MIDiA as proof.

Much of the growth is coming from “countries like South Korea, India, Japan, Russia, and Brazil,” according to Cohen.

YouTube Music’s primary advantage is its place within the overall YouTube ecosystem and its massive catalog. “There’s no other place where fans can get uninterrupted access to the largest and most diverse catalog of music, artists, and culture,” said Cohen “We’re making it easy for music fans to go deep and find their thing – whether that’s on YouTube or the YouTube Music app.”

“We’re not taking our foot off the gas anytime soon,” he added.

Bruce Houghton is Founder and Editor of Hypebot and MusicThinkTank and serves as a Senior Advisor to Bandsintown which acquired both publications in 2019. He is the Founder and President of the Skyline Artists Agency and a professor for the Berklee College Of Music.