A Little Knowledge... #103

Welcome to A Little Knowledge #103 – our free weekly LinkedIn newsletter!

This is only a glimpse into this week's full The Knowledge email, brought to you by Trolley – subscribe to the full newsletter for FREE, and every Friday it’ll sashay into your inbox!

???BULLETIN NEWS: ?YouTube now has 125m Music and Premium subscribers

YouTube has hit its latest subscriber milestone: 125 million people paying for its YouTube Music and YouTube Premium tiers –?the latter of which includes YouTube Music:

• This is up from 100 million at the start of February 2024, the last time YouTube announced a milestone.?
• “This momentum is critical to our goal of becoming the No. 1 contributor of revenue to the industry, and we won’t stop until we get there,” wrote YouTube’s music boss Lyor Cohen?in a blog post announcing the new milestone.
• The last time YouTube released a comparable figure was in 2022 when?Cohen revealed it had paid out $6bn to the music industry?in the 12-month period between July 2021 and June 2022. He also set a deadline of 2025 to overtake Spotify.
• Subscriptions are one part of YouTube’s business (and music payouts). The other is advertising.?YouTube generated $36.15bn of ad revenues in 2024, up 14.7% year-on-year, although how much of that comes from music content –?and thus what proportion is paid out to the music industry –?is unknown.

?? Read our analysis in full?here.?

?

?? INTERVIEW FRENZY: we speak to the movers, shakers and decision-makers

We've been out and about, talking to a lot of interesting people in the music biz recently - and they've all got something to say?that will make you go?hmm.?Here's a quick round-up:

• Eamonn Forde?met with Sacem CEO,?Cécile Rap-Veber.?She talked about why songwriters are too often overlooked in new royalty payment model debates, where the profligacy of streaming services needs to be reined in, why DSPs taking a 30% cut need to rethink this in terms of how they pay songwriters better, and more.?Read it?in full here?(and find?all of Eamonn's interviews?here.)
• Music Ally's Head of Insight?Stuart Dredge?spoke to two fascinating individuals with insight from the cutting-edge: speaking to Austere’s?Natasha Brito?about?artist branding, absurdism and lore;?and?Mark Mulligan?from Midia Research about?music's creator economy.?
• And finally: in?Team Talk,?our marketing experts speak to music industry teams about their latest work, best practices, and smart strategies. This month Music Ally COO?Patrick Ross?talked distribution with?Timothy Trudeau, CEO of digital distribution and marketing agency Syntax Creative. (Explore?the Team Talk archive here.)?

?

?? A LITTLE SOMETHING EXTRA...

Our daily Bulletin newsletter is loved by subscribers for its instant industry analysis - but secretly, the part they like most is the ‘A Little Something Extra’ section at the bottom of the email. Here's a few of the best recent links:

• Absolutely nothing to worry about here!?The humanoid robots can now do kung fu...
• Why would someone pay $87,840 at auction for a Flamin’ Hot Cheeto? Because it’s?shaped like a Charizard Pokémon?of course!
• Ain’t nobody (nobody) turns left at the next junction better...?Chaka Khan is the latest voice for Google’s Waze satnav app.

?? MUSIC ALLY JOBS

The latest and best jobs for the global music business, trusted by both top music industry companies and experienced professionals on top of their game.

Are you looking for a job? Click here to see the full list of vacancies!

?

This is only a glimpse into this week's The Knowledge newsletter – subscribe for FREE and every Friday it’ll arrive in your inbox with:

• ?? Highlights from our latest COUNTRY PROFILE REPORTS
• ?? ?? Some great and/or strange music in SOMETHING 4 THE WEEKEND
• ?? A look back in TIME MACHINE
• ?? The Music Ally Focus PODCAST
• and ?? more links to our favourite unusual stuff in A LITTLE SOMETHING EXTRA