‘Gangnam Style’ is no longer YouTube’s most-watched video
There’s a new record-breaking, most-watched YouTube video — Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth’s “See You Again.”
The Warner Music Group artists recently surpassed the insanely compelling 5-year-old dance video “Gangnam Style” by Psy, YouTube records show.
“See You Again,” from the movie “Furious 7,” hit 2,894,026,649 on July 10, the video streamer said in a statement.
“Gangnam Style” had 2,894,022,885 views on the same day.
Psy’s song had been on top for the past five years, taking over from Justin Bieber’s “Baby” in November 2012. Both artists are with Universal Music.
“See You Again,” released in 2015, has averaged more than 3 million views per day this year.
Even so, the revenue from all those views doesn’t amount to much, according to estimates from Brian Wieser of Pivotal Research, who suggested that YouTube charges around $10 per 1,000 views of an ad that runs ahead of the video.
That amounts to roughly $10 million for every billion views, or nearly $30 million in ad revenue for each of the popular videos.
YouTube splits the cash evenly with the labels. The labels have various ways of splitting the cash with the artists — depending on the territory and the artist. In most cases the label artist split is 50/50.
YouTube also rings up revenue from data it collects on viewing habits, one source noted.
“I’m super excited and grateful to everyone who supported the song and video on YouTube, and happy to inspire and impact so many lives,” multiplatinum selling Wiz Khalifa said in a statement.
“I remember when I signed up for YouTube in 2007 and had hopes of uploading a video and it reaching 10,000 views,” said Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter/producer Charlie Puth.
“Now, a decade later, it feels incredible to be a part of the most-viewed video on YouTube,” Puth added.