YouTube Says That It Has Paid the Music Industry $1 Billion USD in 2016

A marked change from the RIAA’s suggestion that streaming services were underpaying artists.

YouTube has reported that it has paid the music industry $1 billion USD during 2016 alone. The amount was gleamed from a blog post by the company’s Chief Business Officer Robert Kyncl, who wrote a recap of the year for the company. In the post, Kyncl said the following:

“In fact, in the last 12 months, YouTube has paid out over $1 billion to the music industry from advertising alone, demonstrating that multiple experiences and models are succeeding alongside each other.
And this is just the beginning. As more advertising dollars shift from TV, radio and print to online services, the music industry will generate even more revenue from ads. In the future, the music business has an opportunity to look a lot like television, where subscriptions and advertising contribute roughly equal amounts of revenue, bolstered by digital and physical sales. To achieve this, there is a lot of work that must be done by YouTube and the industry as a whole, but we are excited to see the momentum.”

This appears to be a turning point for the company in terms of revenue sharing. In the past the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) has argued that it haven’t received enough revenue from streaming services, with chairman Cary Sherman saying in a blog post that “The consumption of music is skyrocketing, but revenues for creators have not kept pace.”