YouTube’s ad-free subscription service has reached a significant milestone.
According to Stocklytics.com, the service has spiked by a staggering 233% surge since 2020 to surpass 100 million paying subscribers across YouTube Music and YouTube Premium.
Stocklytics Financial analyst Edith Reads said, “The exponential rise in YouTube ad-free subscribers reflects the platform’s strategic investments in enhancing premium offerings.
“This includes exclusive content, ad-free streaming, and other additional features. This surge also highlights consumers’ evolving preferences, who increasingly value the benefits of a premium subscription, such as uninterrupted viewing and access to exclusive content.”
Ad-free service
The world’s biggest video site launched a paid, ad-free subscription service called YouTube Red almost a decade ago. The service allows customers to access YouTube videos, the company’s gaming app, and a new music app without commercials. Later, the platform divided YouTube Red into YouTube Premium and YouTube Music Premium.
“In 2015, many doubted a subscription model could thrive on YouTube”, the company’s Global Head Of Music, Lyor Cohen, declares in his latest blog post. “They said the market was crowded, and our platform was too different. Today – 100 million subscribers later – our distinctiveness is precisely what drives our success and why I still see so much room for growth”.
YouTube Music is the company’s streaming music service; the ad-free Premium tier costs $10.99 monthly. At $13.99 per month, YouTube Premium includes Music Premium, removing ads from YouTube, unlocking higher-quality streaming, and enabling background play and downloads.
How does YouTube premium compare to its competitors?
YouTube’s subscriber count does not distinguish between the two premium tiers. This makes it hard to tell how many people actually use YouTube Music compared to other platforms like Apple Music and Spotify. Additionally, it is difficult to know how many people are paying extra for the additional tier.
YouTube’s combined 100 million subscribers are still behind those of Netflix (260.8 million subscribers) and Spotify (226 million paid subscribers). It’s more comparable to Disney Plus, which crossed the 150 million paid sub-mark last year.
But YouTube’s free service shouldn’t be seen as a competitor to other premium streaming services, especially given its varied offerings (user-generated video, live TV, streaming music, on-demand video). YouTube also abandoned the streaming arms race and stopped making original content in early 2022.
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