YouTube Music

The race to 100 million paid subscribers was won by Spotify not too long ago. And while Apple Music is reportedly leading the charge in the U.S., the last reported total was 50 million paid subs for Apple’s service. But what about Google, which, technically, has two different streaming music services?

According to Bloomberg, Google has reached 15 million paid subscribers. And that’s including both YouTube Music and Google Play Music. To be fair, Google Play Music is going to be folded into YouTube Music in the (near?) future. At that point, Google should only have one primary streaming music service to take on Spotify, Apple Music, and Pandora.

One other note: The 15 million across both services also includes listeners that are on promotional accounts. So that number could see some shifting as those promotional offers fade out.

“The figure includes subscribers to two services — YouTube Music and Google Play Music, an older service that is being folded into YouTube Music — said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information isn’t public. The number also includes some customers who are still on promotional trials.”

While Google did not officially comment on the numbers themselves, the company did provide a bit of context. According to the company, subscriptions to YouTube Music “and Premium” jumped up a whopping 60 percent between March of 2018 and March 2019.

YouTube Music may be earning subscribers on a regular basis, but there does not seem to be an indication it’s actually catching up to the main rivals out there. Apple Music has been growing at a ridiculous rate sings its initial debut. And Spotify continues to dominate the market in terms of subscribers. Still, options are good, so hopefully YouTube Music doesn’t disappear anytime soon.

[via Bloomberg]