The consumer longs for humanity in music, says YouTube's head of music

Mint

21-05-2025

Ten minutes into our interview, Lyor Cohen pulls out his phone and opens YouTube to play Fight for Your Right to Party. I hadn't heard the popular 1986 Beastie Boys track—one he backed in his early 20s, when hip-hop was still new and major labels had dismissed the song as 'scraping the bottom of the barrel." Cohen bobs his head as the Google India rep and I listen to the party anthem of the late 80s America that climbed to rank 7 on Billboard Hot 100 in 1987.
Now 65, Cohen has spent over three decades in music, repping acts like Run-DMC and labels like Def Jam that helped define the '80s hip-hop era. He later led the Warner Music Group for nearly a decade, and for the past eight years, he's been the global head of music at YouTube and Google. Still, when asked about the platform's impact on the industry, he's clear: 'Even though I work for them, I don't represent them, I represent the music industry."
'Indians 'see' music, they don't 'hear' it," Cohen says of the second-biggest music market by number of streams that ranks 14th in revenue terms as per the last estimates from IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry). 'But a 14-year-old kid from India who doesn't have a job yet but loves Badshah should not be disrespected, right? They're not paying with a subscription, but they're paying with their eyeballs, which makes them a valuable customer." Cohen believes Indian artists should push themselves to go global, citing the example of rapper Hanumankind, arguing that success in music is 'not determined by a region, but by an artist's ambition".
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Cohen was recently in Mumbai for the World Audio Visual & Entertainment Summit (WAVES) and spoke to Mint on the sidelines. Edited excerpts from the interview on the past, present, and the foreseeable future of the music industry:
If you were 25 and starting over in this industry now, what would you do differently, both in terms of running a record label and championing artists?
One of the things about my career that I value is that I didn't know so much to get scared. So I took a lot of risks without understanding how risky it was. Like just going from my hometown in Los Angeles to New York in 1983 with a hole in my shoe, and following artists who talked (rapped) instead of conventional singing... Sometimes, ignorance is bliss. Back then, it felt like walking into a dark room. I stayed close to the edges and somehow made it out, and my career advanced.
Now people show me the room, and it is terrifying. The cost of making music and bringing it to the world has been reduced so dramatically, but it has created other problems. The endless scrolling, for instance. All of a sudden, artists are like 'social media people' chasing shortcuts to cut through that clutter.
Isn't the platform that you represent also creating and providing that shortcut? So you're telling artists not to chase the endless scroll while the platform is providing users the scroll…
I love that you went there. I declared this early on to my colleagues that even though I work for them, I don't represent them; I represent the music industry. And I think because of that, I'm one of the few traditional media people who have survived in this tech culture.
I want scrolling to be used as a discovery vehicle. I look at it as a sugar high. I want our scroll to be an appetiser, and YouTube to act as the main course that allows people to go deep into the music experience. And the users who pay for the music subscription: that's the dessert. This way, it becomes a more nutritious experience. And we're the only ones that could do that.
Can artists afford not to chase the scroll, though, when the consumer is so hooked on it as well?
A lot of people think artists have an easy existence. But, like in almost every other profession, very few make it to the top here and are wildly successful. This is art... Sometimes, even if you cut through the clutter and you don't consistently do what an artist is supposed to do, you will end up having what we call a 'one-hit wonder'. To have a long-lasting career, you have to be a master craftsman of your craft. And what is your craft? You make the most compelling songs.
Many artists still struggle to make money, often losing royalty to covers or lofi versions on audio streaming platforms. How do you see this gap between artist earnings and platform profits?
This is not the case with us. We have invested hundreds of millions of dollars to prevent that. There's a whole campus in Zurich, Switzerland, dedicated to creating content IDs that capture that variation and allow the rights holders to capture the money.
Fair point. But do you ever worry that being the biggest player in streaming can make YouTube complacent?
The opposite of complacency doesn't have to be based on worry, but it can be based on ambition. I'm ambitious. And this company is ambitious.
How do you see the role of music executives changing in the next 5–10 years, and how should the next generation of leaders prepare for it?
I believe that the music industry never really landed the plane to take a moment to recognise the dramatic changes that are happening around us. So music executives have been changing the plane as they're flying. They must try to articulate the value proposition to the artistic community. It is also important that they protect artists in a way that gives them the courage to make those magical records. So you, as the music executive, hire all these cottage industries to get the clicks if you must, but don't tax the artist for it. Let them spend time in the haystack looking for the needle. Don't make them chase the endless scroll. Make them chase the magic that we're all desperately in need of.
How do you view protecting human artistry in the wake of AI's intervention into music?
Our system is organised around the consumer. And I think the consumer longs for humanity. Where we could be helpful is to augment the human touch, not replace it. If we replace it, I think the consumer would not dig it as much. With AI, I think the consumer is digging the ability to manage their life more efficiently, but music isn't about efficiency. You don't navigate music, you get lost in it.
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