What you need to know
- YouTube Music and Premium jointly celebrate 100 million subscribers.
- YouTube's music head, Lyor Cohen, acknowledged the platform's growth of 20 million members in a little over a year.
- Music and Premium have brought in several features over the past year, one of which deals with new ventures into AI-powered music and a conversational AI for videos.
YouTube Music and Premium are sharing the milestone of achieving 100 million subscribers.
The platform's initial celebration post stated that this number includes active trials for both platforms as we enter February. Lyor Cohen, global head of music at YouTube, stated in a follow-up post that this number results from a "20-million-member growth" in a little over a year.
YouTube Music and Premium are available in over 100 regions globally, with Cohen taking us back to 2015 during the former's inception. However, "Music" originally started as YouTube Music Key (2014), much like "Premium" was once YouTube Red up until late 2015.
Alphabet's Q4 2023 earnings report reiterated some of these points. The company's CEO, Sundar Pichai, stated, "YouTube is the key driver of our subscription revenues available in over 100 countries and regions. YouTube music and premium have real momentum."
The post highlights new features, like Samples, a new form of music discovery for the streaming service. YouTube Music's new tab is reminiscent of TikTok or Shorts, giving users quick previews of songs to get them hooked. From there, listeners can tap its album cover to view related music, add it to their playlist, or use the music to make a Short.
Another venture involves generative AI for Premium. The platform started testing its conversational AI capabilities with a limited group of testers in November. Those users would find an AI-powered "Ask" button beneath certain videos, enabling them to find answers about the video using their own or pre-made queries. The bot could summarize the video and offer similar content suggestions.
The test concluded on December 15 without knowing when the general public might see it.
Meanwhile, YouTube Music started on its own path with "Dream Track." The tool allows creators to craft AI music using iconic vocal samples without the legality of paying royalties.
