Alphabet
’s
GOOGL
division Google is leaving no stone unturned to strengthen its music streaming service — YouTube Music — in order to deliver an enhanced experience.
This is evident from its introduction of the latest features and improvements in the search algorithms on YouTube Music.
The company introduced a family shelf named ‘For the Family’ to provide a unique experience of family listening. The shelf comprises a personalized Family mix and appears on the home feed.
The Listen Again shelf for smart TVs and gaming consoles will now feature an increased number of results. Also, it will stop showing duplicates.
Apart from these, improved search algorithms will play only the song selected from the search results.
The YouTube Music Wear OS app users will now be able to shuffle and play all the downloaded music.
We believe that these features will help Google gain further traction among music lovers.
Growing Music Streaming Market
The latest move bodes well for the company’s growing music streaming efforts.
Apart from the latest move, Google recently rolled out the repeat feature in YouTube Music during casting sessions. The feature will allow users to repeat whole albums, playlists and individual songs.
The feature works on both Android and iOS versions of YouTube Music.
With the growing endeavors, Google remains well-poised to rapidly penetrate the booming global music streaming market.
Uninterrupted access to high-quality audio files without the need for downloading, which generally takes up time and phone memory, is a key catalyst.
The growing proliferation of smartphones and the rapid adoption of AI-backed smart speakers are boosting the demand for music streaming services.
According to a Grand View Research report, the global music streaming market will see a CAGR of 14.7% between 2022 and 2030.
Per a report from Statista, the market is expected to generate $26.6 billion in revenues in 2022, which is expected to reach $36.3 billion by 2026, witnessing a CAGR of 8.1% between 2022 and 2026.
User penetration in the underlined market is likely to hit 9.4% in 2022 and 12.2% by 2026.
Competitive Scenario
Given the upbeat scenario, not only Alphabet but other companies like
Amazon
AMZN
,
Apple
AAPL
and
Spotify
SPOT
are making strong efforts to capitalize on the above-mentioned prospects.
Apple is continuously gaining steam in the underlined market with the expanding Apple Music subscriber base. It offers several songs with world-class music experts and tastemakers curating thousands of playlists and daily selections.
The iPhone maker is benefiting from partnerships. Its tie-up with Verizon has made Apple Music available to its customers for free.
Amazon is enjoying solid momentum across its Amazon Music Unlimited, a premium music subscription service, allowing Prime members to stream millions of songs.
The company’s move of integrating artist merchandise into the Amazon Music app remains a major positive. Its Wondery buyout remains noteworthy.
Meanwhile, Spotify, which dominates the music streaming market, is benefiting from premium subscriber growth. Its solid focus on the personalization of playlists enhances the music experience for users.
The company’s deep focus on expanding podcast content remains another major positive. The acquisitions of two podcast networks, Gimlet and Anchor, remain noteworthy.
Nevertheless, YouTube Music’s user-friendly features are expected to help it give tough competition to its peers.
Currently, Alphabet carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see
the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
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