In announcing the new Premium Lite subscription tier today, YouTube reaffirmed its commitment to music on the platform.
YouTube Premium Lite at $7.99 per month in the US is essentially the $13.99 Premium plan without ad-free YouTube Music. Downloads and background play are also not offered. It’s ideal for those that have their own music subscription service, though the lack of system-level picture-in-picture on Android and iOS might give people that want to downgrade some pause.
In fact, YouTube found in early pilot testing that “more Lite members upgraded to YouTube Premium than Premium members downgraded to Premium Lite.” It ultimately sees Premium Lite as “feeding our subscriptions funnel.”
The company shared today that there are now “125 million YouTube Music and Premium subscribers globally, including trials.” YouTube has a “goal of becoming the No. 1 contributor of revenue to the industry.”
More broadly, YouTube’s Global Head of Music Lyor Cohen today said that it “plan[s] to make YouTube the best place for every music fan and every artist.”
This mission to create the best fan experience fuels a powerful flywheel for artists. Increased discovery, engagement, and community fuel greater promotion and monetization opportunities for artists, attracting even more artists and premium content to the platform
For artists, YouTube today emphasized how:
- “Our global reach empowers fans to discover new music on Shorts, which now generates over 70 billion daily views, and on connected TVs – the fastest-growing surface for YouTube and the primary viewing device in the US.”
- ”The trend of artists delivering premium content directly to the big screen continues to grow, whether through music videos or live performances at iconic events like Coachella. In fact, last year more than 50% of Coachella’s live stream viewership was on connected TVs, and we’ll build on that momentum next month.”
Looking ahead: “…our commitment to music fans and artists demands we focus on leading the industry in visual storytelling.” YouTube is “foreseeing a renaissance of the music video” by making it “easier for every artist and fan to create” their “visual stories.”
That’s why we’re investing heavily in AI tools like Dream Screen in Shorts which is now powered by Veo 2, Google DeepMind’s newest state-of-the-art generative video model. With this new integration, artists and fans can create standalone video clips for their Shorts, broadening the horizons to tell visual stories with music.
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