YouTube says it has paid over $1 billion (£787 million) to the music industry from income generated through from advertising in the last 12 months.

YouTube's chief business officer Robert Kyncl revealed the figure in a blog published on Tuesday (December 5). In contrast, Spotify paid $1.74 billion (£1.37 billion) in 2015.

The video streaming service has regulaly come under fire from the industry for not paying enough royalties. A study released earlier this year said 63% of Americans had listened to music on the platform at some point.

A report by UK Music said YouTube's per-stream royalties dropped from $0.0020 to $0.0010 in 2015. YouTube responded by saying it doesn't pay artists per-stream as it makes money from advertising.

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