YouTube is taking Spotify head on with a brand new streaming-music service called “YouTube Music.”
Goldman Sachs analyst Heather Bellini says the new offering looks a lot like Spotify and Apple Music and that the service “could closely mirror Spotify’s current product in offering on-demand access to ‘millions of songs’ for paid users and providing a subsequent ad-supported offering.” The premium product will be priced at $9.99 a month — the same as Spotify.
But achieving competitiveness could be an uphill climb for YouTube. “We believe it will be challenging for YouTube music to drive subscribers away from the service,” Bellini said. That’s in large part because Spotify creates an almost unbreakable cycle. It learns what users like to listen to and creates a very customized user experience, which in turn creates user loyalty.
