YouTube Music payments are split into 2 categories
1. Subscription streaming on YouTube Premium and YouTube Music App (revenue is generated via subscription fees)
Streams in-app are paid like any other subscription streaming service (think Spotify premium) where your tracks are monetized per play. The rate may vary based on listening time and territory.
2. Regular YouTube site streaming / non-subscription streaming on the YouTube Music App (revenue is generated via advertisements)
Streams from your YouTube topic channel on the YouTube site and streaming by people who are not subscribed to YouTube Music are monetized differently. Like a regular YouTube video, your rate is based on whether an ad is placed on your video on a specific listen. All tracks have the potential to be monetized or unmonetized depending on the listener. For this reason, you may see unmonetized and monetized plays for the same track in the same territory.
The Benefits of delivering your content to YouTube Music
Robust, clean/consistent metadata
Metadata from your YouTube Music deliveries help search results and recommendations.
Higher quality audio delivery. Our YouTube Music deliveries provide high-quality audio files not supported by regular YouTube upload.
Preference in the YouTube Music app
The YouTube Music app plays audio tracks, so if there's only a video, it will not appear here. An art track from YouTube Music makes this possible.
Without a YouTube Music art track
YouTube won't know the order the video appears in an album.
The video can't appear as part of an album on the artist's page or in new releases.
YouTube can't display album art on videos.
YouTube can't provide album-level stats in YouTube for Artists.
Its views won't contribute to the future albums chart.