- Spotify continues to be the market leader and recorded a 23% YoY;
- Music streamers are focusing on creating exclusive content with podcasts continuing to feature strongly in 2020.
Global online music streaming subscriptions grew 32% year-on-year reaching 358 million subscriptions in 2019, according a Counterpoint Research report. According to the consultancy firm, this is driven by the availability of exclusive content such as podcasts, and original releases, in addition to promotional activities like price cuts in in emerging markets, and bundled offers in partnership with telecommunication companies.
“This suggests people are ready to pay for music streaming for a hassle-free experience. However, this is not completely user-driven. Music streaming platforms are following a two-step approach to gain subscribers, first registering them to their platform as free users by means of excellent advertising campaigns and secondly pitching them with attractive offers to transfer them to become paying subscribers”, said Research Analyst Abhilash Kumar on the consultancy press-statement.
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Spotify grabed a 31% share of the total revenue and a 35% share of the total paid subscriptions in 2019, followed by Apple Music, which accounted for a 24% share of revenues in the industry and a 19% share of the total paid subscriptions. According to Counterpoint, due to Apple’s high focus on its services segment which includes Apple Music, its subscription base grew 36% in 2019. Amazon Music subscriptions, in its turn, reached a 15% share in 2019 compared to 10% in 2018.
Also according to the firm, despite global players strongly pushing their music streaming platforms, regional players stand strong in their respective regions, primarily because of regional exposure and high focus on local content. “Gaana continues to be the no.1 player in the Indian market, Yandex Music is leading in Russia. Similarly, Anghami leads the Arab world. Tencent Music Group leads the China market with the help of its apps QQ Music, Kugou and Kuwo“, says Counterpoint.
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In its press-release, Counterpoint Research said that it expects a growth of over 25% in online music streaming subscriptions in 2020, which it owuld lead the total number of subscribers to more than 450 million by the end of this year.
As pointed out by the consultancy firm, more than 80% of music streaming revenue came from paid subscriptions (the rest comes from advertisements and partnerships with brands and telcos). Therefore, increasing paid subscriptions is of prime importance for music streaming platforms.
