YouTube reports having 50 million Premium and Music subscribers

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Google has announced that it has 50 million users subscribed to or trying YouTube Music and YouTube Premium, which is a marked increase from the 30 million subscribers it reported in December 2020. This seems to mark a continued trend in people looking to make the jump from the free versions of YouTube and YouTube Music, even as more services are competing in the space.

Google doesn’t break down that 50 million number any further, so we don’t really know how many people are subscribed to YouTube Music or Premium and how many are using the services’ free one-month trial. However, its blog post spends a lot of time talking about music, hailing YouTube as the fastest-growing music-subscription service. Variety also compared Google’s numbers...