Music Subscriber Market Shares 4.0 Subscriptions Decouple from Revenue

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The 20,000 Foot View: This report presents key figures from MIDiA’s global music subscriber market shares model. The full dataset is published alongside this report with quarterly data from 2015 to 2020 and annual label trade revenue from full year 2015 to full year 2019 for streaming services across different markets. The Excel dataset also includes ad-supported service-level data by country and an extensive consumer survey dataset.
Key Insights
- Music subscriber growth is becoming detached from subscription revenue growth. Label trade revenues for subscriptions grew by in 2019, while subscriber growth was over the same period
- Global subscriber growth is accelerating, reaching million in 2020, a net increase of million compared to million one year earlier
- The competition is consolidating; the top five (Amazon, Apple, Google, Spotify and Tencent) accounted for of global market share in 2020, up from one year earlier
- Spotify continued to dominate the global market with its million 2020 subscribers representing market share
- Google (YouTube Music and Google Play Music) and Amazon Music were the two fastest-growing global streaming services, increasing and respectively
- In descending order, Apple Music, Spotify, and Amazon Music Unlimited have the highest share of weekly users that are also daily users
- The US represented of global subscription revenue in 2019, up from in 2018, but its share of subscribers fell from in 2019 to in 2020, while average revenue per user rose
- There were million music subscribers in the US in 2020, with Apple leading at market share and Amazon, Google and Spotify all gaining market share
- Australia’s subscription market represents one ofSpotify’s highest market shares however, that is significantly down from a high of in 2017
- The UK had million subscribers in 2020, adding more subscribers million) over 2019 than 2018 million), with Spotify at market share
- France’s subscriber base grew at almost exactly the same rate as the UK, resulting in million subscribers in 2020 but with slower revenue growth and thus falling average revenue per user
- Germany had million subscribers at the end of 2020, up from one year earlier and with Spotify leading at market share
- Japan is behind the streaming curve, with its million subscribers representing just penetration, and growth rates slow for this modest level of adoption, up just
- China is the market to watch, with million subscribers making it the world’s second largest market in subscriber terms, and despite low average revenue per user, growth is accelerating
Companies and brands mentioned in this report: Amazon, Amazon Prime Music, Amazon Music Unlimited, Amazon Music, Anghami, Apple, Apple Music, AWAL, d Hits, Deezer, Gaana, Genie Music, Google, Google Play Music All Access, Hungama, Jio Saavn, KKBox, Line Music, MelON, Napster, Netease, Pandora, Sirius XM, Soundcloud, Spotify, Tencent Music Entertainment, Tencent, Tidal, Vkontakte, Yandex, YouTube, YouTube Music, Wynk, Xiami