Study: YouTube Music set to be a challenger to Spotify, SoundCloud in Australia

YouTube Music is going to be a major challenge to the major streaming services, according to the Roy Morgan Single Source report that analyzed the numbers.

The researcher’s prediction comes from in-depth face-to-face interviews with 1,000 Australians each week, or 50,000 each year.

Over 5 million Australians aged 14+ (or nearly a quarter of the population) now visit radio or music sites in an average four weeks.

Many of the streaming services have been secretive about their Australian numbers.

But according to Roy Morgan, Spotify is Australia’s most popular radio or music site visited by nearly 2.2 million Australians in an average four weeks.

This is a 9% increase, or 889,000 more Australians than a year ago.

SoundCloud is second with over 1.3 million visitors in an average four weeks and the nationally syndicated Triple M at third spot with over 520,000 visitors.

Apple Music and Google Play Music have under 400,000 each in the time span.

But, says Roy Morgan, all expectations point to YouTube Music becoming a dominant player.

YouTube Music arrived in the Australian market with YouTube drawing 15.2 million visitors, representing around 75% of Australia’s adult population.

This is “over three times the size of the combined radio and music site market at present,” says Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine.

YouTube Music’s entry into the streaming music industry will see Google Play Music rolled into the new service.

YouTube already has leakage from other sites. 98% of Vevo visitors and 95.8% of Spotify’s also access YouTube.

90% of visitors to the Apple Music, SoundCloud and 3AW Melbourne 693 sites also visit YouTube.

Less than 90% of visitors to the Nova FM, Smooth FM, Triple M and iHeartRadio sites also access YouTube.

Levine says “Although Spotify and SoundCloud have stolen a march on competitors which include many of Australia’s leading radio stations, the biggest threat to their business model could well be YouTube Music which is set to challenge their leadership in the market head on in the future.”

She adds there are other threats in Australians to the current major players.

“In an increasingly interconnected and online world, the ability of giant technology companies such as Google/YouTube, Amazon, Apple, Facebook and the like to enter new markets and challenge existing players means those already in the market need to stay on top of exactly who and where their customers are.”