Advertisement
Singapore markets closed
  • Straits Times Index

    3,224.01
    -27.70 (-0.85%)
     
  • Nikkei

    40,168.07
    -594.66 (-1.46%)
     
  • Hang Seng

    16,541.42
    +148.58 (+0.91%)
     
  • FTSE 100

    7,952.62
    +20.64 (+0.26%)
     
  • Bitcoin USD

    70,811.36
    +1,402.04 (+2.02%)
     
  • CMC Crypto 200

    885.54
    0.00 (0.00%)
     
  • S&P 500

    5,254.35
    +5.86 (+0.11%)
     
  • Dow

    39,807.37
    +47.29 (+0.12%)
     
  • Nasdaq

    16,379.46
    -20.06 (-0.12%)
     
  • Gold

    2,254.80
    +16.40 (+0.73%)
     
  • Crude Oil

    83.11
    -0.06 (-0.07%)
     
  • 10-Yr Bond

    4.2060
    +0.0100 (+0.24%)
     
  • FTSE Bursa Malaysia

    1,530.60
    -7.82 (-0.51%)
     
  • Jakarta Composite Index

    7,288.81
    -21.28 (-0.29%)
     
  • PSE Index

    6,903.53
    +5.36 (+0.08%)
     

Alphabet (GOOGL) to Boost YouTube Music With New Capabilities

Alphabet’s GOOGL division Google is leaving no stone unturned to add features to its music-streaming service named YouTube Music.

According to 9TO5Google, Google is gearing up for redesigning the YouTube interface for Android mobiles.

The redesign includes a portrait orientation with a two-column layout and a larger cover art. The updated interface also shows a large play button and other options like download, add to library, share and an overflow menu.

Moreover, the shape of the mood filters consisting of energize, workout, relax, commute and focus is changed to rectangles with rounded corners. Also, the ‘More’ option is changed to a pill-shaped button.

ADVERTISEMENT

With this recent move, GOOGL aims to provide Android phone users with an enhanced music streaming experience. This is likely to boost the adoption rate of YouTube Music.

Thus, the increasing uptake of YouTube Music is expected to benefit GOOGL’s financial performance in the near term, which will further help it win investor confidence.

Shares of GOOGL have been down 31.9%, outperforming the Zacks Computer and Technology sector’s decline of 34.6% in the year-to-date period.

Alphabet Inc. Price and Consensus

Alphabet Inc. Price and Consensus
Alphabet Inc. Price and Consensus

Alphabet Inc. price-consensus-chart | Alphabet Inc. Quote

Growing YouTube Music Efforts

Apart from the latest move, Alphabet recently rolled out the redesigned album UI on Android tablet. The redesign version shows the artiste’s name, type of media and the release year on top. Options like download, add to library, play, share and an overflow menu are also included.

In addition, GOOGL introduced shortcut features and an album carousel to the YouTube Music’s Explore tab.

GOOGL added a capability whereby users can save queues as playlists. Alphabetalso rolled out its Recent Played and Turntable widgets to Android users.

With these recent efforts, Google positioned itself well to rapidly penetrate the booming global music-streaming market.

The market has been witnessing significant growth for a while owing to an increase in mobile advertisement spending, use of mobile apps, rise in the number of subscription services and users’ accessibility to local content on the music streaming platforms.

Per a Grand View Research report, the global music streaming market is expected to see a CAGR of 14.7% from 2022 to 2030.

Competitive Music Streaming Market

Given the huge potential in the music streaming space, not only Alphabet but other companies like Amazon AMZN, Apple AAPL and Spotify SPOT, are making consistent efforts to capitalize on the above-mentioned prospects.

Amazon is gaining strong momentum in the music streaming market on the back of its expanding global footprint. AMZN offers its premium music subscription service Amazon Music Unlimited to customers. With Amazon Music Unlimited, music lovers can listen to any song anytime and anywhere on all types of devices, including smartphone, tablet, PC/Mac, Fire TV, and Alexa-enabled devices like Amazon Echo. AMZN has lost 31.7% in the year-to-date period.

Shares of Apple have been down 15.3% in the same time frame. Apple’s music-streaming service Apple Music offers a subscription tier powered by Siri named Apple Music Voice Plan. Using Apple Music Voice Plan, subscribers can access millions of songs, playlists, personalized mixes, genre stations and Apple Music Radio. Music listeners can also download the Apple Music app on their Android tablet or Chromebook supporting Android apps.

Spotify provides commercial free music and ad-supported services to customers. Music lovers can enjoy ad-free music and offline playbacks with Spotify Premium service. SPOT users can enjoy the tablet version of Spotify on their iPad or Android tablets. Spotify lost61.8% in the year-to-date period.

Nevertheless, Alphabet’s consistent efforts to provide an enhanced music-streaming experience to customers with growing upgrades are likely to help it gain a competitive edge over its aforementioned peers.

Currently, Alphabet carries a Zack Rank #3 (Hold). You can seethe complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.


Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report
 
Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Apple Inc. (AAPL) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Spotify Technology (SPOT) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
To read this article on Zacks.com click here.
 
Zacks Investment Research