Pandora, Spotify Shares Under Pressure After YouTube Music Announcement

As long as Alphabet Inc GOOGL GOOG’s got your data, it might as well use it.

The company is leveraging its cache of consumer information to build out YouTube Music, a streaming platform offering audio and video recommendations based on listening patterns, location and time of day.

Why It’s Important

YouTube Music intensifies already high pressure in the streaming industry.

Pandora Media Inc P fell as much as 2.7 percent, Spotify Technology SA SPOT 2.8 percent and Apple Inc. AAPL 0.4 percent on news of the direct competition.

The existing environment finds Pandora ceding listeners, Spotify suffering high churn for its premium tier, and the entire cohort bracing for potentially detrimental changes to federal royalty laws.

What’s Next

The offering will launch May 22 in the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, Mexico and South Korea with subsequent expansion into 14 other markets. Consumers can access the platform in a free, ad-supported version and a $9.99 premium version, and an extra $2 opens up all YouTube Premium.

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