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Tag: songs

  • YouTube Music free on Google Home smart speakers

    YouTube Music free on Google Home smart speakers

    Google has just announced that its YouTube Music service is now available on all Google Home smart speakers. Starting today, those who own a Google Home smart speaker will be able to enjoy all the benefits offered by the music streaming service, but there’s a catch.

    Only the first tier YouTube Music experience is available on Google Home smart speakers, which means you you’ll have to put up with ads. Still, if you don’t mind getting a free, ad-supported music experience on your Google Home, you just need to say “Hey Google, play techno vibes,” and your smart speaker should do the rest.

    But that’s not all, if you upgrade to YouTube Music Premium for $9.99/month, you’ll be getting even more control when listening music on smart speakers in the YouTube Music mobile app. For example, you’ll be able to request specific albums, songs, artists, and playlists on-demand.

    Also, you get access to easy-to-use player controls, including unlimited skips and song replay.Besides the benefits mentioned above, a YouTube Music Premium tier will also let you background play music through the YouTube Music app while using other apps, and allows downloads for offline listening when you’re on the move.

    To start using YouTube Music on your Google Home smart speaker, simply open Account Settings in your Google Home app, go to Services and select Music. Then, choose YouTube Music as the default music service, or you can choose YouTube Music as the default music service during the setup process.

    Now, the free service is available not available everywhere yet, so here are the first countries that will get it starting today: United States, Canada, Mexico, Australia, Great Britain, Ireland, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Japan, Netherlands, and Austria. The good news is Google will bring it to more countries soon, so there’s that.

  • The music streaming competition just got Started

    The music streaming competition just got Started

    There is no shortage of players in the music streaming space and the metrics used to determine success are also pretty complex, but from one metric Apple Music just passed Spotify, but it’s too early to say for sure what this means for either company. Even so, it appears to cement Apple Music as a major player in the music streaming space.

    Apparently, in the month of February, Apple Music passed Spotify in terms of paid U.S. users for the first time ever. Apple Music counted 28 million paid subscribers in the U.S. while Spotify had just 26 million, and Apple Music had a faster growth rate than Spotify. That seems good, but for full context there are a few things to keep in mind. First and foremost, Apple Music doesn’t even have a free tier for subscribers, so that 28 million is essentially the entire U.S. user base for Apple Music (not counting anyone on a free trial.) Spotify does have a free/ad-supported version and taking that into account, Spotify does have more users in the U.S. than Apple. The ad-supported tier doesn’t generate as much money for Spotify but it does add up.

    Beyond all that, we’re sorry to say but the U.S. is only one country in the world and Spotify has almost twice as many paid subscribers globally as Apple Music does (98 million to 50 million as of December). And, that gap gets considerably bigger once you include the ad-supported tier which bumps Spotify’s user base to more than 200 million.

    Of course, music streaming is Spotify’s entire business, whereas Apple Music is one service offered by the behemoth. Any paid subscribers Apple gets is just gravy, whereas that’s the lifeblood of Spotify. Still, it’s something to keep an eye on going forward.

  • Spotify and Apple Music were very important to the music industry Last Year

    Spotify and Apple Music were very important to the music industry Last Year

    It’s okay to dance now that the 2019 IFPI Global Music Report is out. The report from The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry shows that a 32.9% increase in paid streaming revenues helped drive a similar increase in total streaming revenue last year. Streaming now accounts for 46.9% of the music industry. Overall, the global music market increased its top line by 9.7% last year to $19.1 billion and revenue from streaming music came to $8.9 billion, up from $6.7 billion in 2017. Streaming was obviously very important to the music industry during 2018. That is especially true since last year music downloads and physical music sales declined 21.2% and 10.1%, respectively.

    As 2018 came to an end, there were 255 million people around the world paying monthly for streaming music. The leading provider globally was Spotify, with 87 million paying subscribers. Apple Music came in second. In the U.S., growth in streaming music revenue came to 33.4% last year, while sales of physical music (records, CDs) declined 22.1%. In the states, the fastest growth came from the paid streaming segment.

    “Streaming revenues, particularly from paid subscriptions, continued to grow in 2018, with all regions posting growth in this area. Overall, growth trends were more diverse across different markets.”-IFPI

    The top two music streamers in the world, Spotify and Apple, are at odds over the 30% that Apple charges Spotify subscribers who pay monthly through the App Store. As we told you last month, Spotify has filed a complaint with the European Commission over this so-called “Apple Tax.” This is why individual Spotify subscriptions cost $12.99 on the App Store as opposed to the usual $9.99 price. With Apple Music available from the iOS app storefront for only $9.99 a month, Spotify claims Apple is giving its own music streaming app a major advantage.

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