A quarter of YouTube viewer hours are spent on music – around 250 million hours of music globally per day
Image Credit: Azamat E
A YouTube exec says that 25% of all watch time is now attributable to music, totalling around 250 million hours of daily music on YouTube.
The Google-owned video-sharing platform’s Chief Business Officer (former Netflix VP of Content) Robert Kyncl reported the stat at the Royal Television Society Cambridge Convention sponsored by YouTube. The event earlier this week titled “Broadcast Britain: Reshaping Britishness on the Global Stage” featured speakers such as TikTok’s former CEO Kevin Mayer. Former Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden was booked, however after his exit from the post earlier this week, Media Minister John Whittingdale stepped in.
Along with 25% from music, Kyncl reported a further 25% comes from media companies, while the remaining half is user-generated content. During Alphabet’s Q2 2021 earnings call, Google’s SVP & Chief Business Officer Philipp Schindler said that YouTube sees “a billion-plus hours of video watched every day.” This means that approximately 250 million hours of music are consumed on YouTube daily around the world. Additional, a substantial portion of YouTube’s creator content features music and music-related media, even if it’s not the focus of the production.
It’s also worth noting some of YouTube’s other key stats from this year:
- “song” is the most commonly searched term on YouTube, according to Hootsuite.
- YouTube Music now has 50 million paid users.
- YouTube Shorts surpassed 15 billion daily views.
- Despite ranking behind YouTube in total viewing hours, TikTok have overtaken YouTube in average watch time per user in the US and the UK, showing a dedicated audience.
- YouTube reported more than $7 billion from ads alone in Q2 2021, up 84% year-over-year.