YouTube Paid the Music Industry $8 Billion. How Much Did Songwriters See?

YouTube’s Global Head of Music, Lyor Cohen, announced last week that the platform paid eight billion dollars to the music industry between July 2024 and June 2025.

 

“Today’s eight billion dollar payout is a testament to the fact that the twin engine of ads and subscriptions is firing on all cylinders,” said Cohen. “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.”

 

There is no question that YouTube plays a massive role in today’s music economy. The company reports more than 125 million Music and Premium subscribers (including trials) and well over two billion logged-in monthly users worldwide. Those numbers make YouTube one of the most popular platforms for global music discovery, fandom, and revenue generation.

 

But when a platform says it paid billions to the “music industry,” it is worth asking: how much of that actually reached songwriters?

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The 15.25 Percent Headline Rate

In the United States, streaming royalties for songwriters and publishers are set by the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB), a panel of judges appointed by the Library of Congress. The current framework, known as the Phonorecords IV agreement, establishes a headline rate of 15.25 percent for paid, interactive streaming services like YouTube Music Premium, Spotify Premium, and Apple Music. 

 

That means that from the portion of YouTube’s music revenue that comes from paid subscriptions, about fifteen cents of every dollar earned is owed to songwriters and publishers.

 

If that same rate applied to YouTube’s reported $8 billion payout, it would suggest that up to $1.2 billion could have gone toward publishing and songwriter royalties globally. But since most of YouTube’s music activity takes place on its free, ad-supported platform, the actual amount is almost certainly much lower.

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The Free Tier Is Where Most of the Music Lives

Unlike services that rely mostly on paid subscriptions, most of YouTube’s music consumption occurs on its free, ad-supported platform. That tier is not governed by the same statutory mechanical rates that apply to paid subscription streaming. Instead, music usage on YouTube’s free tier is monetized through a combination of performance royalties (collected by PROs such as ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, and GMR), direct publishing licenses, and the Content ID system.

 

Those agreements are negotiated privately and vary by territory, which means there is no public information showing what percentage of YouTube’s ad revenue actually reaches songwriters and publishers.​

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The Real Question

YouTube’s eight billion dollar payout is an important milestone. It highlights the platform’s growing influence in global music, but for songwriters, one question remains:

 

How much of that eight billion dollars actually reached the people who wrote the songs?

 

To answer that, The 100 Percenters reached out to YouTube’s communications team, asking for clarity on:

• How much of the eight billion dollars came from YouTube Music Premium versus the free, ad-supported platform?

• Within that total, how much was allocated to publishing and songwriter royalties?

 

We did not receive an immediate response.

 

Until there is transparency on those numbers, it is difficult to know how much progress is truly being made for songwriters, the foundation of every song on the platform.