The internet has transformed how we find and listen to music and a new report shows that YouTube is the place to go when it comes to finding your new favourite artists.

A new report from Midia Research looking at the “State of the YouTube Music Economy” has revealed YouTube is the place to go for music in 2018. YouTube is the most widely used streaming music app in the world and when it comes to 16-44 year olds, YouTube is the place to go to discover new music or re-listen to their favourite gems.

As the newer generations move towards streaming for all of their music needs, YouTube’s availability and ease of use have made it a favourite for music lovers. The report shows that YouTube is the main way 16-44 year olds around the world are discovering with a giant penetration rate of 73% of 16-19 year olds in Brazil. This has especially increased in recent years thanks to YouTube’s new approach and prioritisation of music.

Last year YouTube signed deals with all of the major record labels to rectify conflict with the music industry, with many musicians unhappy with how little they paid for music compared to other streaming services. Since resolving their low payout issues YouTube have taken music much more seriously. They have created a new separate platform for music, YouTube music, which acts much more like a traditional streaming service with the added benefit of music videos, live music, and more music content that you can get on YouTube.

It’s working to make music vastly more popular than it already was on YouTube. By the end of July this year, Vevo reported that ten music videos released this year had already reached 1 billion overall views. Together those videos have a total of 17.2 billion views. In 2010 it took on average 1,841 days for a video to reach 1 billion views.

YouTube made an immense $3 billion in revenue from their music content in 2017, however it trailed in revenues behind some other genres, particularly gaming videos which make up the majority of YouTube income. This accounted for 21% of their revenue last year, although music made up 32% of their overall views. Hopefully income and views will align much better this year with YouTube’s new focus on music.