Sources: YouTube and Google Play just hit 15m music subscribers

YouTube Music and Google Play Music have jointly surpassed 15 million subscribers.

The figures are not official and released to media outlets via anonymous sources.

But indicates that both – which will merge down the track – are far behind Spotify with 100 million subscribers and Apple Music with over 50 million subscribers.

The figure includes those who are trialling free subscription trials.

But it remains ahead of Pandora, with just under 7 million subscribers.

YouTube has not released official subscription figures and its only official response is that YouTube Music and Premium grew 60% between March 2018 and March 2019.

Premium includes both music and ad-free video.

It later issued a statement saying it “aggressively disputes” a claim in the Wall Street Journal that its subscription growth has plateaued.

The platform insisted that “healthy subscription growth continued through Q1 of this year.”

To put the YouTube music streaming figures in perspective, it is battling the common global mindset that YouTube is about free video watching, and finding it difficult to translate usage into payment.

1.3 billion people use YouTube, watching 5 billion videos a day—or 3.25 billion hours a month.

Under its global head of music, Lyor Cohen the platform is increasing the number of music attractions, including short-form video series featuring acts such as Billie Eilish, funding music videos for selected artists, promoting selected albums, and increasing livestreaming of festivals.