YouTube ad revenue topped $10.4 billion during Q4 2024, per Alphabet’s latest earnings report. Photo Credit: Azamat E
Thanks in large part to massive spending on political spots, YouTube advertising revenue cracked $10 billion during 2024’s final three months.
The overarching Alphabet disclosed this and other YouTube performance specifics in its Q4 2024 earnings report. Important on multiple levels – YouTube had previously been in the habit of touting its music industry payments – the details are especially noteworthy amid Spotify’s video expansion.
All told, YouTube generated $10.47 billion from ads during 2024’s fourth quarter, up about 13.8% from the same period in 2023. The double-digit growth, Google chief business officer Philipp Schindler elaborated during the Q4 earnings call, “was driven by strong spend on U.S. election advertising, with combined spend from both parties almost doubling from what we saw in the 2020 elections.”
It’s unclear which portion of the sum derived from ads played on YouTube Music and music content accessed via YouTube proper. But the total is certainly worth keeping front of mind as Spotify (which posted €537 million/$559 million in Q4 advertising revenue) looks to make waves in the video world.
That buildout mainly revolves around podcasting; Spotify announced a revamped monetization program for video podcasts this past November.
However, as we reported (and as Google execs reiterated in different words during the earnings call), YouTube has capitalized on video podcasts en route to dethroning Spotify in the space and topping competitors in overall U.S. TV watch time.
Consequently, it’ll be worth monitoring the results of Spotify’s video expansion in 2025 and, in light of YouTube’s well-entrenched position, beyond.
Closer to the present, Spotify (as well as Apple Music and Amazon Music) still has a clear-cut subscriber edge over YouTube Music in the U.S., DMN Pro data shows. Despite facing thousands of infringement claims from the NMPA, the Stockholm-based platform yesterday reported having 263 million worldwide subscribers as of Q4.
(Spotify stock today hit another record-high price, this time in excess of $630 per share. And some analysts believe there’s room for continued growth; UBS has upped its SPOT target to a whopping $720.)
From a global perspective, Alphabet doesn’t break down the exact number of subs attached to YouTube Music. Nor does the Google parent identify revenue by offering. But in Q4 2024, “subscriptions, platforms, and devices” including YouTube Music brought in a cumulative $11.63 billion (up 7.8% YoY), Alphabet indicated.
During today’s trading, Alphabet stock (NASDAQ: GOOG) parted with just shy of 7% of its value to finish at $193.30 per share.