YouTube surpasses 50 million subscribers for music and ad-free video watching

YouTube has built up a paying subscriber base of more than 50 million accounts, the company said in a letter posted to YouTube’s blog Thursday. The members cross its music-streaming service YouTube Music and its YouTube Premium offering that includes Music as well as perks on its main video site, like watching ad-free. The 50 million figure also includes people on free trials. 

By comparison, Spotify, the world’s biggest music streaming service by subscribers, has 165 million paying members. According to music industry researcher MIDiA, Google’s YouTube holds about 8% of the world’s subscription streaming market. Apple Music’s share is double that, and Spotify’s share is double Apple’s.

YouTube, the world’s biggest source of video with more than 2 billion monthly users, fumbled with subscription streaming products for years before landing on its current dynamic offering YouTube Music for $10 a month and YouTube Premium — which includes a Music subscription and has the added benefit of letting members watch YouTube ad-free, offline and in the background on mobile devices — for $12 a month. 

Bloomberg earlier reported the news. 

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