Music Industry

YouTube is huge and getting huger when it comes to music. Here are the latest figures.

Ten years ago this month, Psy released “Gangham Style” on YouTube. Today, it is the fifth-most viewed video on the platform with (as of this morning) 4,483,327,654 plays. YouTube has taken the opportunity to give us some stats about what’s happening in YouTube World.

  • More than 300 videos have been viewed more than a billion times (the exact number might be 317.)
  • The video with the most views is “Despacito” with Luis Fonsi ft. Daddy Yankee (7,909,504,507 plays as of this morning.)
  • The video that went from zero to a billion the fastest is “Hello” by Adele. It took 88 days.
  • Justin Bieber and J Balvin each have eleven videos with at least a billion views.
  • The first 80s video to reach the one billion mark was Guns N’ Roses’ “Sweet Child O’ Mine.”
  • The first 90s video to reach the one billion mark was Guns N’ Roses’ “November Rain.”
  • YouTube has more than 2 billion monthly users when it comes to music.
  • The platform pays more than US$4 billion in royalties to the music industry.
  • 50 million people are paying for a YouTube subscription that includes music.

Alan Cross

is an internationally known broadcaster, interviewer, writer, consultant, blogger and speaker. In his 40+ years in the music business, Alan has interviewed the biggest names in rock, from David Bowie and U2 to Pearl Jam and the Foo Fighters. He’s also known as a musicologist and documentarian through programs like The Ongoing History of New Music.

Alan Cross has 38858 posts and counting. See all posts by Alan Cross

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