YouTube exec: We’ve paid out over $1 billion to the music industry over the ‘last several years’

Much has been said about how much or how little music streaming services actually pay artists who host music on their platform, and it seems like video streaming stalwart YouTube also had to take a lot of flak over its payouts for music videos at the Midem music industry show in Cannes this week.

However, Tom Pickett, the vice president of YouTube content at Google, revealed at a Midem panel that YouTube has paid out more than a billion dollars to the music industry over the “last several years,” Music Ally reports.

Pickett defended YouTube’s ad-supported model, which he says leads to other forms of monetization. “We’ve paid out to the music industry over the last several years over a billion dollars. So there is money being generated in this ad-supported model,” he says.

Regarding the potential for a YouTube subscription service, Pickett says we will “have to see.” YouTube was reported last year to be in the process of creating a premium on-demand music service.

➤ YouTube reveals $1bn music payouts, but some labels still unhappy [The Guardian]

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