Chart of the Week: Google Play Music and YouTube Remix

Posted April 27, 2018

Last July, Lyor Cohen, head of music at YouTube, announced plans to merge Google Play Music with YouTube Red, the subscription service that allows members to skip ads and save music offline. But additional details, such as a launch date for the new service, or a timeline for merging the two services, was never announced. This week, a new report emerged, claiming that a new service called YouTube Remix would replace Google Play Music by the end of 2018. As the press have pointed out, it’s high time for YouTube and Google to clean up their confusing ecosystem of music and video streaming service offerings and develop a smarter way to consolidate and monetize their listener base. How many users could the forthcoming YouTube Remix service gain as a result from this new merger?

How many users could YouTube Remix attract?

Verto Analytics looked at the existing audience (among U.S. adults, ages 18 and above) for some of Google and YouTube’s existing streaming services: YouTube, Google Music, and YouTube Music. According to Verto Watch, YouTube Music is the smallest of these services, with just 2.7 million monthly unique users; in comparison, Google Play Music attracts nearly 24 million million monthly unique users. But both services are dwarfed by YouTube’s audience of 197 million monthly unique users, which represents a 91% reach among all adult online users in the U.S.

If Alphabet (Google and YouTube’s parent company) can launch YouTube Remix as a streamlined and attractive alternative to leading streaming music services, it could evolve as a credible threat to the likes of Apple Music and Spotify, the current top-ranking music streaming services according to our recent Verto Index. While Google Play music ranked at just #5 in our latest Verto Index for streaming music services, YouTube’s existing audience of 197 million users presents an incredible marketing opportunity for YouTube Remix, just in sheer numbers alone.

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Note: time spent per user denotes foreground usage only.

chart of the week, google play music, streaming music, youtube, youtube music, youtube remix

Connie Hwong

Connie is the global content marketing director at Verto Analytics. Prior to Verto, Connie held positions at ABB and Gigaom, and worked with brands like AOL and Zendesk. When she's not tracking down (and telling) interesting stories behind Verto's data and people, she's busy cycling around Berlin in pursuit of strong coffee and interesting music.