Report reveals music now drives 33% of YouTube watch time
As YouTube becomes a more diverse video platform, music is right at the heart of it.
A deep dive into YouTube
A new report from research firm Omdia suggests that music now accounts for 33% of all watch time on YouTube. That’s a lot of attention on the world’s biggest video platform.
According to Omdia’s estimates, YouTube now hosts 29 billion videos as of December 2025. YouTube has come a long way since its early days. Today, it’s a more diverse platform across professional content, music, news, and podcasts.
In particular, Shorts are now estimated to represent over 90% of all upload to the platform. That shows the growth of short-form content, which is now a core part of the YouTube experience. For artists, maximizing your short-form content matters more than ever, and you can even get your music onto Shorts’ audio library for free with RouteNote today!
What are people watching?
The headline stat for the music industry is that music videos now make up 33% of total YouTube watch time. As MusicAlly points out, if this is accurate, it marks notable growth since 2021 where music accounted for 25% of YouTube watch time.
Meanwhile, professionally filmed content makes up the largest share of viewing at 46% of total viewing time. News content represents 10% and video podcasts represent 5%, both commanding meaningful and growing attention.
The bigger picture
For the music industry, India’s estimates have interesting implications. YouTube recently pulled its streaming data from Billboard’s industry-leading US charts. The platform argues that Billboard’s modernized rankings still don’t fully reflect how audiences consume music today, particularly when it comes to how ad-supported streams are weighted. Last year, YouTube revealed that over a billion hours of video are consumed on the platform each day. If music truly makes up a third of that watch time, it could have a huge impact on US charts moving forward.
On the other end of the spectrum, music’s high watch time is having a positive impact on revenue for the industry. In 2025, YouTube revealed it paid over $8 billion to the global music industry, marking its biggest annual payout to date. That’s huge for artists and the industry as a whole.
What this means for artists and the industry
Put simply, these figures reinforce what we already know. YouTube is an essential platform for modern artists to share songs, connect with fans, and build sustainable careers. Whether its long-form videos, Shorts, live sessions, behind-the-scenes clips or music videos, it all matters.
With music now taking 33% of the platform’s watch time, it’s clear that YouTube remains a crucial platform for artists and labels everywhere.