Subscription model works and YouTube is showing the way as the video platform has notched up over 100 million premium subscribers. It’s a milestone for YouTube as well as the overall video industry, even though the figure includes trial subscriptions, so the real number of paid subscribers is fewer.

The new figure is up from the 80 million premium and music subscribers around the world reported in November 2022, and a jump from 50 million users at the end of 2021.

YouTube’s subscription tiers are very important to Google’s subscriptions services, which reached $15 billion in revenue in 2023. Around nine years ago, YouTube launched a paid, ad-free subscription service and then decided to divide YouTube Red into YouTube Premium and YouTube Music Premium.

“The music industry is at a critical juncture. Together, we can harness technological innovation to drive unprecedented value for artists and fans, building on our momentum that contributed $6 billion to the music industry in 12 months. From leveraging AI to enhance creative imagination, to seamlessly bridging short-form and long-form content for maximum artist exposure, we can forge a future together where the music industry thrives,” YouTube’s global head of music Lyor Cohen in a post.

“YouTube Premium and Music crossing the 100m subscriber milestone is indeed a great milestone moment for the music industry. We will continue investing in our strong partnership with Google that will help grow the subscription business, enhance fan experiences and contribute to the overall growth of the Indian music ecosystem,” said Neeraj Kalyan, president, T-Series.

Even with 100 million subscribers, YouTube’s numbers are far behind those of Netflix (260.8 million subscribers) and Spotify (226 million paid subscribers) but one has to remember that YouTube’s offerings are far more varied.