YouTube has claimed that it paid out over $1.8bn to music rights-holders in the 12 months to the end of September this year, in advertising revenues alone. The figure is revealed in Google’s new ‘How Google Fights Piracy’ report, in which it’s also claimed that YouTube has paid out more than $6bn to the music industry to date – $3bn of which has come from the monetized use of music in videos via Content ID.
Source: YouTube: We’ve paid the music business $1.8bn in ad money over the past 12 months