Alphabet's (GOOGL) YouTube Music Rolls Out Repeat Feature

Alphabet’s GOOGL division Google is bolstering its presence in the music streaming market on the back of updating features on YouTube Music.

Reportedly, the company finally rolled out the repeat feature in YouTube Music during casting sessions. The feature will allow users to repeat whole albums, playlists and individual songs.

The feature works on both Android and iOS versions of YouTube Music.

Notably, the underlined feature was launched last year, along with the shuffle feature. However, the repeat button was grayed out soon.

The latest move bodes well for Google to deliver an enhanced music streaming experience to users.

Apart from the latest move, it is set to add a home screen tile to the YouTube Music app for Wear OS. With the help of the home screen tile feature, Wear OS users can listen to their favorite YouTube Music playlist or album that they have recently played.

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Growing Music Streaming Market

With the recent move, Google will be well-poised to rapidly penetrate the booming music streaming market.

The market has been rising significantly in the country due to the increase in mobile advertisement spending, use of mobile apps, a rise in the number of subscription services and users’ accessibility to local content on the music streaming platforms.

Per a report by Statista, revenues generated from the global music streaming are expected to touch $26.6 billion in 2022. It is anticipated to progress, seeing a CAGR of 8.1% between 2022 and 2026, resulting in a market volume forecast of $36.3 billion by 2026.

The report further reveals that the number of users in the market is likely to hit 959 million by 2026.

The latest move is likely to bolster the company’s presence in the global music streaming market.

Competitive Scenario

Given the upbeat scenario, not only Alphabet but other companies like Amazon AMZN, Apple AAPL and Spotify SPOT are making strong efforts to capitalize on the above-mentioned prospects.

Apple is continuously gaining steam in the underlined market with the expanding Apple Music subscriber base. It offers several songs with world-class music experts and tastemakers curating thousands of playlists and daily selections in 115 countries.

Additionally, the iPhone maker is benefiting from partnerships. Its tie-up with Verizon has made Apple Music available for free to its customers.

Amazon is enjoying solid momentum across its Amazon Music Unlimited, a premium music subscription service, allowing Prime membership users to stream millions of songs.

The company’s move of integrating artist merchandise into the Amazon Music app remains a major positive. Its Wondery buyout remains noteworthy.

Meanwhile, Spotify, which dominates the music streaming market, is benefiting from premium subscriber growth. Its solid focus on the personalization of playlists enhances the music experience for users.

Additionally, the company’s deep focus on expanding podcast content remains a major positive. The acquisitions of two podcast networks, namely Gimlet and Anchor, remain noteworthy.

Nevertheless, YouTube Music’s growing efforts toward expanding its features are expected to help it give tough competition to its peers.

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

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