When the streaming debate is brought up, YouTube usually isn't tossed into the mix because of the fact that it’s a video-based service. Nonetheless, how many times have you streamed a song on YouTube just to listen to it, and not to watch a video? According to Music Business Worldwide, YouTube is the largest music streaming service in the world, and it’s growing faster than whatever other platform you’re using right now.
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In the first half of 2015 in the US, overall on-demand streams grew 92.4% year-on-year to 135.2bn. The majority of this growth was down to YouTube (plus Vevo and other video services), which saw a stream volume increase of 109.2% to 76.6bn. Audio on-demand streams across services such as Spotify, Rdio, Rhapsody, Beats Music and more increased 74.2% to 58.6bn.
However, with Spotify becoming a major figure, and now Apple Music, do you still use YouTube to stream music as much as you used to? Or have other platforms caused you to step away?