With 15 Mn downloads in month, India leads growth for YouTube Music

A month after launching its dedicated app for music, Google-owned Youtube has claimed India as one of its fastest-growing markets recording significant growth in downloads for Youtube Music.

YouTube Music app has been downloaded more than 15 million times in the country, said Google CEO Sunder Pichai during the company's first-quarter results.

Earlier in March, YouTube had launched its music streaming app and paid service Youtube Premium offering users ad-free services, background play, and offline download feature.

The service included official songs, albums, thousands of playlists and artist radio plus YouTube’s catalogue of remixes, live performances, covers and music videos.

Pichai further said that YouTube's ad business, for both brand and direct response campaigns, continues to grow and support its creators

In a week after its launch in India, the Google-owned streaming app has claimed three million downloads.

A month before Youtube foray, the Swedish music streaming giant Spotify had also entered the Indian market. Spotify has over two million monthly active users in India, the company disclosed in its earnings results for the first quarter of 2019.

Its paying subscribers has reached 100 million mark globally and it aims to have about 107 million to 110 million premium subscribers by the end of the current quarter.

Comparatively, YouTube is considered a bit flexible and available in more languages than other music apps in the country. Besides, YouTube Music recommendation is also considered better based on Google account settings.

YouTube’s rising MAU, 265 million, also add to the punch in its appeal.

Of late, India has become a battleground for video and audio streaming services firms. This is largely due to the rising number of smartphone users in the country and the availability of cheap data.

In India, these global players will compete with Amazon Music, JioSaavn, Gaana, and Hungama. Last month, Gaana announced that it has over 100 million MAU on its platform and launched two new products.