YouTube Music and YouTube Premium have surpassed 100 million subscribers globally, including trial users, which is a major milestone for the digital streaming service.
This achievement highlights the platform’s longevity and the extensive entertainment options it provides to users all over the world, including the varied and lively Nigerian community.
Adam Smith, YouTube’s VP of product management, spoke on the occasion, saying that the company launched YouTube Music, a subscription service and app, in 2015 in response to user demand for an improved YouTube experience that catered to creators and artists.
Read also: YouTube Premium, YouTube Music Premium Reach 110 Countries
For YouTubers and music fans who desire more control over their YouTube experience, we’ve created a solution that lets them listen to music offline, download songs to listen to later and enjoy YouTube without ads. Over the course of its history, YouTube has gained valuable knowledge, redirected its focus, rebranded itself, increased its product offerings, and expanded its plans to over 100 countries and regions.
Despite this, the team’s primary goal has always been to provide the YouTube community around the world with an exceptional experience.
Indeed, just in the last year, they improved the Premium playback experience by introducing an improved version of 1080p HD and allowing you to continue watching YouTube across various devices, such as smart TVs and tablets. Additionally, the team tested out some new generative AI features, which were initially available to Premium users. Additionally, they provided a fully customisable radio-building experience, added podcasts to YouTube Music, and introduced the Samples tab—a lightning-fast method for listeners to find new music.
What keeps people coming back to YouTube beyond the features, is the amazing content that creators and artists upload. By giving artists and creators an extra way to make money through subscriptions, YouTube Premium helps keep the community strong.
How this impact the Nigerian creators’ community
Addy Awofisayo, YouTube’s Head of Music for Africa, shed light on the platform’s influence in Nigeria, highlighting the significance of local engagement. According to Awofisayo, YouTube Music and Premium have been incredibly successful in Nigeria, giving local musicians and content makers a worldwide platform to showcase their work.
According to him, the platform has done more than just make a vast amount of music and content accessible; it has also been instrumental in the rise of Nigeria’s music industry by giving artists a platform to showcase their work and earn money. Not only does YouTube celebrate its global achievements at this milestone, but it also celebrates the individual stories of Nigerian creators and artists who contribute to YouTube’s diverse and rich community.
How Nigeria’s creative industry boosts the economy
Film, theatre, music, dance, literature, fashion, radio, television, the arts, sports, IT, media, advertising, and gaming are just a few of the many facets that make up Nigeria’s creative industry.
The three primary effects of the creative industry on national economic indicators—the creation of jobs, the contribution to GDP, and exports—have already been identified. Struggling against homelessness.
Approximately 154 billion Nigerian naira (NGN), or around 197.6 million USD, was contributed to Nigeria’s gross domestic product in 2023 by the movie and music recording industries. The movie and music industries certainly made a dent in the national GDP, but the most lucrative part of the ICT sector—with 2.84 trillion NGN, or about 3.64 billion USD—belonged to telecommunications and information services.