Image credit: YouTube

The recent Midia Research report has revealed that YouTube Music is the fastest growing subscription based streaming platform.

Recently Midia Research released a report that detailed the latest estimates for the size of the global music streaming subscriptions market, with figures from the end of the first quarter of 2021. 

Streaming services such as Spotify dominated with an estimated 159 subs at the end of March, giving it a 32% share of the 487 million music subscribers across the globe. This is followed by Apple Music’s 16% market share (around 77.9 million subs), Amazon Music’s 13% share (63.3 million), and the same 13% rounded share from Tencent Music (which has around 60.9 million users). 

However, it’s the fifth-placed YouTube Music that is showing the most promise with a 60% subscription growth in 2020. The service now has an 8% market share in Q1 of this year with 39 million subscribers. This is a staggering increase as the company reported at the end of Q3 2020 they had 30 million subscribers. 

Speaking on YouTube Music’s growth Mark Mulligan of Midia Research said: “Google’s YouTube Music has been the standout story of the music subscriber market for the last couple of years, resonating both in many emerging markets and with younger audiences across the globe.” Adding: “The early signs are that YouTube Music is becoming to Gen Z what Spotify was to Millennials half a decade ago.” 

However, platforms such as TikTok are starting to make companies like YouTube a little nervous, as such they are directly trying to combat the short-form video app. YouTube recently dropped its YouTube shorts, which are now available in more than 100 countries. It’s certainly an interesting time period in the history of music with signs of some amazing growth.