YouTube paid out more than $8 billion to the music industry between July 2024 and June 2025, the Google-owned company’s global head of music, Lyor Cohen, has announced in an open letter to partners. He called it a milestone, highlighting how central the platform has become to the global music economy. Cohen also discussed a string of defining cultural moments that went viral on YouTube.
A year of landmark moments for YouTube
Cohen shared some data and details about some of the landmark moments for YouTube, including:
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ROSÉ and Bruno Mars opened the Grammy Awards with APT – a song that racked up over 2. 3 billion views on the platform.
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Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime performance crossed 120 million views, a number Cohen says is not surprising because the artist holds the record for the most music videos with over a billion views – 19 in total, more than any artist in history.
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ROSALÍA’s performance at the BRIT Awards pulled in 4 million views in just two days.
‘Music Video’ is alive and kicking
Cohen has pushed back on any narrative that the music video is dying even as when short-form content dominates, including Shorts. He attributed YouTube’s “comprehensive visual storytelling ecosystem” for billions of logged-in viewers watching music videos on YouTube every month.
Cohen also addressed the elephant in the room: use of generative AI in videos, and was direct about where YouTube stands. Echoing remarks made by CEO Neal Mohan, he stated clearly: “AI will remain a tool for expression, not a replacement.”
YouTube recently announced that it is building AI-powered tools to expand storytelling capabilities for artists and creators, while also strengthening safeguards by working on upgrades for Content ID system as well as adding new protections around likeness detection and cracking down on the spread of low-quality AI-generated content on the platform.
He shared an example of AI done right: Cohen says singer Lewis Capaldi’s reimagined music video for “Something in the Heavens”, created using YouTube’s Flow tool in collaboration with Wonder Studios.
“Our mission for 2026 is clear: Help artists and songwriters harness the power of visual storytelling to build their global audiences and lifelong careers. At the same time, help fans cut through the noise and take them on an immersive journey to find the music that soundtracks their life, creating connections that run deep along the way,” he added.
