YouTube is still the world’s most popular streaming music service, according to tracking from the analysts at MIDiA. But Spotify is growing at such a clip that it might be able to close the gap. In fact, in the UK, Spotify surpassed YouTube for music among Gen Z’s 16-19 year olds.
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Analysis From Mark Mulligan of MIDiA
“YouTube is the world’s leading streaming music app and this is true of the larger, mature markets. The continual breaking of YouTube music streaming records by the likes of Shakira and Luis Fonsi point to a renaissance in YouTube as a music streaming platform. However, the origin of those artists point to the location of YouTube’s music momentum: Latin America. Meanwhile, across the US, UK, Canada and Australia, weekly usage of YouTube as a music app was flat, and down actually in Australia.”
Most of the music apps we tracked had a dip in Q1 2017, but in the main held ranking and overall usage.
Deezer saw a small rise while Soundcloud fell slightly. Spotify was the big winner, gaining penetration to close the gap on YouTube, and becoming the leading standalone music app. In the UK, Spotify surpassed YouTube for music among 16-19 year olds, hinting at a strong future for Spotify among Gen Z. Talking of Gen Z, lip synching apps
Musical.ly and Dubsmash maintained momentum across the period, something other music messaging apps have previously failed to do this late on in their lives. These sort of apps, though niche in scale, point to what Gen Z want from their social music experiences.”