YouTube has reached another major milestone in the global music streaming market, announcing that YouTube Music and YouTube Premium have surpassed 150 million subscribers worldwide.

The achievement was revealed by Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai during the company’s third-quarter financial results on October 28, 2026.

The latest figure represents significant growth from the 125 million subscribers YouTube reported in March 2025, demonstrating the continued popularity of its music and video subscription services.

However, while YouTube continues to gain subscribers, its growth rate has slowed compared with previous years.

With Spotify maintaining its position as the world’s largest dedicated music subscription platform, the competition between the two streaming giants is becoming increasingly interesting.

YouTube Adds 25 Million Subscribers in Under Two Years

YouTube’s latest announcement highlights how rapidly its subscription business has expanded.

The platform has achieved several major subscriber milestones in recent years:

• February 2024: 100 million subscribers
• March 2025: 125 million subscribers
• October 2026: More than 150 million subscribers

These figures combine YouTube Music and YouTube Premium subscriptions, including users on free trials.

Between March 2025 and October 2026, YouTube added more than 25 million subscribers, equivalent to approximately 1.3 million additional subscribers every month.

Although this represents impressive growth, it marks a slowdown compared with the previous period.

Between February 2024 and March 2025, YouTube gained approximately 25 million subscribers at an average rate of around 2 million per month.

Nevertheless, adding millions of subscribers to an already substantial user base demonstrates the strength of YouTube’s subscription offering.

What Is the Difference Between YouTube Music and YouTube Premium?

One important detail about YouTube’s subscriber announcement is that the company does not disclose separate subscriber numbers for YouTube Music and YouTube Premium.

Instead, both services are combined into a single figure.

YouTube Music Premium is designed primarily for music listeners. Subscribers receive benefits including:

• Ad-free music listening
• Background playback
• Offline music downloads
• Access to millions of songs, albums and playlists
• The ability to switch between audio tracks and music videos

YouTube Premium offers these music features alongside additional benefits across the main YouTube platform.

Subscribers can watch most YouTube videos without advertisements, download eligible videos and enjoy background playback.

This combination provides YouTube with an advantage that traditional music streaming services cannot easily replicate.

Rather than subscribing exclusively to a music platform, users can purchase a broader entertainment subscription that includes music as part of the package.

For people who regularly watch YouTube videos, the additional value can make YouTube Premium an attractive alternative to subscribing to a standalone music service.

How Does YouTube Music Compare With Spotify in 2026?

Spotify remains the world’s largest dedicated music subscription streaming platform.

According to its third-quarter 2026 financial results, Spotify reached 306 million Premium subscribers globally.

The company also reported 788 million monthly active users across its free and paid services.

This means Spotify has more than twice as many reported Premium subscribers as YouTube’s combined Music and Premium milestone of 150 million.

However, the comparison is not entirely straightforward.

Spotify primarily attracts customers through its music, podcast and audiobook offerings, while YouTube Premium combines music streaming with ad-free video entertainment.

Additionally, YouTube’s reported subscriber total includes free trials, making a direct comparison between the two services difficult.

Spotify also continues expanding its entertainment offering, investing in music videos, video podcasts and audiobooks to provide users with more reasons to remain subscribed.

YouTube, meanwhile, benefits from its enormous existing video audience, giving it opportunities to introduce subscriptions to users who already spend considerable time on the platform.

Both companies are increasingly competing for the same audience, even though their products started from different positions.

YouTube’s Subscription Growth Is Becoming More Important to Google

YouTube’s success is not limited to music subscriptions.

Alphabet revealed that its Google subscriptions, platforms and devices business generated $14.29 billion in revenue during the third quarter of 2026.

This represented an increase of 11% compared with the same quarter a year earlier.

The division includes several products beyond YouTube Music and Premium, including YouTube TV, Google One, Google Play and hardware.

Consequently, the figure should not be confused with revenue generated specifically by YouTube subscriptions.

YouTube’s advertising business also remains extremely valuable.

Advertising revenue reached approximately $11.21 billion during the quarter, an increase of 9.2% year over year.

The results demonstrate the importance of YouTube’s business model, which generates revenue from both advertising and subscriptions.

Google executives also indicated that subscriptions were growing faster than advertising, with YouTube Music and Premium playing an important role.

As more users choose paid subscriptions, YouTube becomes less dependent on advertising as its only major source of revenue.

Why YouTube’s Growth Matters for the Music Industry

YouTube occupies a unique position in the music industry because it operates as both a streaming service and one of the world’s largest music discovery platforms.

Millions of listeners discover artists through official music videos, live performances, lyric videos, YouTube Shorts and user-generated content.

Unlike traditional music streaming platforms, YouTube can introduce audiences to new songs through many different types of video content.

A listener might discover a song through a short video, watch the official music video and eventually add the track to a YouTube Music playlist.

This creates opportunities for artists to connect with new audiences and potentially convert casual viewers into regular listeners.

The financial impact is also significant.

In October 2025, YouTube announced that it had paid more than $8 billion to the music industry over the 12 months ending June 2025.

These payments reflected YouTube’s combined advertising and subscription revenue models.

Continued subscription growth could support further music industry revenue, although the amount ultimately reaching artists and rights holders depends on licensing agreements, listening activity and other factors.

For independent musicians, YouTube remains an important platform for both music discovery and royalty generation.

YouTube Raises Subscription Prices Despite Growing Competition

YouTube’s subscriber milestone also follows increases to its subscription prices in the United States.

In April 2026, the company increased the monthly price of YouTube Premium Individual from $13.99 to $15.99.

YouTube Music Premium Individual also increased from $10.99 to $11.99 per month.

The changes marked YouTube’s first US subscription price increases since 2023.

Despite higher prices, the company has continued attracting subscribers across its music and video services.

The trend highlights how streaming platforms are increasingly focused on balancing subscriber growth with revenue generated from each customer.

For listeners, however, rising subscription prices could make choosing between competing entertainment services more difficult.

As Spotify, YouTube, Apple Music and other platforms compete for subscriptions, the value offered by each service will remain an important consideration.

Could YouTube Music Eventually Overtake Spotify?

YouTube’s continued expansion raises an interesting question: could YouTube Music eventually become the world’s largest music subscription service?

Spotify currently holds a substantial lead in reported subscribers.

However, YouTube has several advantages that could support future growth.

Its main video platform already attracts an enormous global audience, providing opportunities to promote YouTube Premium and YouTube Music to existing users.

Its combination of music and video also offers a different proposition from traditional audio streaming subscriptions.

At the same time, Spotify has established a strong position through personalised recommendations, playlists, podcasts and its extensive music catalogue.

YouTube’s recent subscriber growth has also been slower than during the previous reporting period, suggesting that continued expansion cannot be taken for granted.

Perhaps the most important limitation is that Alphabet does not disclose exactly how many people subscribe specifically to YouTube Music.

Without that information, it is impossible to determine precisely how close YouTube Music is to Spotify in terms of paying music subscribers.

For now, Spotify remains the clear leader among dedicated music streaming subscription services, while YouTube continues building a formidable combined music and video subscription business.

The Future of Music Streaming Is About More Than Music

YouTube reaching 150 million Music and Premium subscribers is another sign that the streaming industry continues to evolve.

Music platforms are no longer competing exclusively on the size of their catalogues.

Instead, they are increasingly offering additional entertainment features to attract subscribers and encourage long-term loyalty.

Spotify continues expanding into podcasts, audiobooks and video.

YouTube combines music streaming with its established video ecosystem.

Other services are also investing in new features, personalised experiences and exclusive benefits to differentiate their subscription offerings.

For music listeners, this competition could lead to more features and greater flexibility, although potentially at higher subscription prices.

For artists and the wider music industry, the continued growth of paid streaming services creates further opportunities to generate revenue from recorded music.

YouTube’s latest milestone demonstrates just how important subscriptions have become to its business.

And while Spotify remains the largest dedicated music subscription platform, YouTube’s combination of video, music discovery and paid entertainment ensures it will remain one of the industry’s most significant competitors.