YouTube Music UK Statistics: 125M Subs, 54.8M Britons

Two services in one

1. 125 million subscribers

In early 2025, YouTube announced that its Music and Premium plans had passed 125 million subscribers worldwide. Premium bundles ad-free video with the full YouTube Music app, so a single plan covers both.¹

2. About 82.6 million music-only subscribers

Analyst firm MIDiA counts only part of that total as true music subscribers, roughly 82.6 million, which puts YouTube Music in fifth place worldwide.²

3. Around 10% of the global market

Measured against all paying music subscribers on the planet, YouTube Music holds about one tenth of the market.³

4. The fastest grower

In 2024, YouTube Music was the fastest-growing of the major streaming services and the only one whose growth actually accelerated year on year.⁴

5. Record jump in early 2026

YouTube posted another record quarterly increase in paid subscribers in the first quarter of 2026, with music doing much of the heavy lifting.⁵

6. £11.99 a month in the UK

YouTube Premium, which bundles in YouTube Music, costs £11.99 per month for an individual plan in the UK, or £119 for a 12 month annual plan (about £9.92 a month).⁶

The giant behind the service

7. More than 2.5 billion users

YouTube itself has more than 2.5 billion monthly active users, a reach advantage that no pure-play music service can match.⁷

8. About 2.6 billion listen to music there

Industry estimates put the number of people who use YouTube to listen to music at around 2.6 billion, most of them on the free, ad-supported tier.⁸

9. Free and ad-supported

Unlike most rivals, YouTube Music can be used for free indefinitely with adverts. That keeps the funnel into paid plans enormous.⁹

10. Most-viewed artist of 2024: Alka Yagnik

Indian playback singer Alka Yagnik logged 19.1 billion YouTube views in 2024, her fifth straight year as the most-viewed artist on the platform globally.¹⁰

11. 54.8 million British users

In the UK, YouTube reaches roughly 54.8 million people each month, around 79% of the population and more than 80% of all British internet users.¹¹

What YouTube pays the music industry

12. Over $8 billion in a year

Between July 2024 and June 2025, YouTube paid more than $8 billion (around £6.4 billion) to the music industry across adverts and subscriptions combined.¹²

13. $2 billion more than in 2022

That payout was about $6 billion as recently as 2022, meaning YouTube has added roughly $2 billion to its annual contribution to music in just a few years.¹³

14. The "twin engine" of ads and subs

YouTube global head of music Lyor Cohen describes the business as a "twin engine": both adverts and subscriptions feed real money back to artists, labels, and publishers.¹⁴

15. Goal: overtake Spotify

YouTube has publicly stated it wants to become the music industry’s largest single payer. For context, Spotify paid out a record $10 billion to the industry in 2024.¹⁵

YouTube Music in the UK

16. Britain’s fastest-growing DSP

According to MIDiA Research, YouTube Music grew its UK subscriber base by 19.8% year on year in 2024, faster than any other major streaming service in the country.¹⁶

17. About 5.2% of UK subscribers

That growth lifted YouTube Music’s share of paying UK music subscribers from 4.5% in 2023 to 5.2% in 2024, behind Spotify on 47.1%, Amazon Music on roughly 27% and Apple Music on about 19%.¹⁷

18. Music Premium for £10.99 a month

The music-only YouTube Music Premium plan is priced at £10.99 per month in the UK, up from £9.99 after the most recent price increase.¹⁸

19. Family for £22.99, students £6.99

The family plan, which covers up to six people in one household, costs £22.99 per month in the UK. Verified students at higher education institutions pay £6.99 per month.¹⁹

20. Premium Lite for £7.99

YouTube’s cheaper Premium Lite tier is also available in the UK at £7.99 per month. It removes adverts from most videos but does not include YouTube Music or offline downloads.²⁰

History, Recap, and AI

21. UK launch in June 2018

YouTube Music and YouTube Premium launched together in the UK on 18 June 2018, part of a 17-country roll-out built around a redesigned app, web player and AI-powered recommendations.²¹

22. Replaced Google Play Music by December 2020

YouTube Music fully replaced Google Play Music by December 2020, with a migration tool that moved playlists, uploads and purchases over to the new app for UK users.²²

23. Dream Track AI uses star vocals

Through Dream Track, built on Google’s Lyria AI model, YouTube lets a small group of Shorts creators generate short tracks that mimic the voices of artists who opted in.²³

24. Recap is YouTube’s Wrapped

Each year, YouTube’s Music Recap gives subscribers a personalised rundown of their top songs, artists, moods and even podcasts, the company’s answer to Spotify Wrapped.²⁴

25. Britain’s second-favourite online audio service

Ofcom’s 2025 Audio Listening report finds that YouTube reaches 47% of UK adults each week for music or audio, second only to Spotify on 36% as an online service and ahead of BBC Sounds on 24%.²⁵