Google Home Smart Speaker Sales Soar, Great News For YouTube Music

Two analysis of the smart speaker market paint a somewhat different picture. But both point to two trends: smart speaker sales are soaring and Google Home smart speakers are gaining ground on Amazon. That's good news for all music streamers, particularly YouTube Music.

A new Strategy Analytics survey concluded that Amazon shipped 4 million Echo speakers for a 43.6% market share globally in Q1 2018 and Google shipped 2.4 million Google Home speakers to capture a 26.5% market share. But analyst Canalys believes that Google shipped 3.2 million smart speakers in Q1 2018 to grab a 36.2% market share with Amazon shipping just 2.5 million smart speakers for a 27.7% market share.

Both analysis point to two major trends. Smart speaker sales are soaring and Google, with year of year growth of between 483% and 702%, is challenging Amazon's dominance in the sector, with Apple capturing just 6% of the overall market.

Whatever the exact numbers,

its great news for YouTube Music.

Google and YouTube's late and latest entry into the streaming music race will be the beneficiary of the millions of smart speakers that Google is selling every month. Early studies of smart speakers show music streaming a top use and easy integration on the streamer owned by the same company as the smart speaker developer is only natural. My Sonos One smart speaker powered by Amazon's Alexa already tries to play a requested song from Amazon Music, unless told otherwise.

"Hey Google, sign me up for YouTube Music"

With its personalized home page and vault of alternative and live versions and videos, YouTube Music has launched with some key points of differentiation. But its' integration with the Google Home smart speakers, could be its biggest overall advantage in the battle for paying subscribers.

H/T Music Ally