The industry’s biggest frenemy has always helped break acts like rising rap star Roddy Ricch. Now it’s signing up more subscribers and bringing in serious revenue — and finally winning over some label executives.
Cohen was in Mumbai, India, when, as he recalls it, his mind was “splattered all over the ground.” The 60-year-old was there for the India launch of his company’s subscription product, YouTube Music Premium, and acts hailing from across the subcontinent were in attendance, with some traveling thousands of miles to perform. “The artist and label community came out in such a loving way,” says Cohen, perched at the edge of an armchair in YouTube’s Chelsea Market offices in Manhattan.
But that was then. During the last year or so, Cohen has presided over a slow thaw in the frozen relations, one brought about by a mix of industry resignation about changing the state of play and enthusiasm about the growth of subscription services, plus YouTube’s efforts to be a better promotional partner and the beginnings of success with its own paid offering.
When he took his job, Cohen says that the misunderstandings went in both directions. “Once I described their fears and how we played into their fears to [YouTube] leadership, they were hugely sympathetic and understanding,” he recalls. “The key is [the word] ‘sustainable.’ To me, sustainable means that the consumer wins, the artists and songwriters win, the people who look after them — managers, publishers, labels — and then the platform wins. Sustainable means that everybody eats.
Until recently, many label and publishing executives thought of YouTube as a service consumers could use instead of subscribing to Spotify — and thus a way to trade subscription dollars for advertising dimes. YouTube often countered that it provided a means to generate additional revenue from casual music fans who might not otherwise subscribe anyway.
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