YouTube are going to war with Spotify by bringing out their own streaming service
With more than 60 million paid subscribers, more than 140 million active users and more than 2 billion playlists, Spotify is the reigning boss of music streaming services. Those are pretty intimidating numbers if you’re a rival company trying to set up a competing business – but that’s exactly what YouTube are planning to do.
Starting in March, Google-owned YouTube will be rolling out its own service called Remix, according to Bloomberg Technology. Insiders at the company say the new streaming service would also incorporate elements from YouTube like video clips.
And it looks like they’re taking this new scheme very seriously and are coming for Spotify with everything they’ve got. They’ve reportedly already signed up Warner Music Group, one of the biggest labels in the world, and are in talks with Sony and Universal Music Group.
Of course, this isn’t the first time Google has tried to grab a piece of the music streaming pie for itself; in 2011 they launched Google Play Music, in 2014 came YouTube Music Key and in 2016 it was the turn of YouTube Red. None of these ventures were as successful as hoped so the pressure is on to make Remix a runaway success.
More than likely, it’ll be hard to sway die-hard Spotify listeners and this news comes as the company released the popular end-of-year function ‘My 2017 Wrapped’ which breaks down the artists, songs and even the genres you’ve listened to the most in 2017.
Good luck YouTube, but you’ve got a massive uphill battle on your hands.