Global online music streaming subscriptions grew 32 percent in 2019, amassing a total of 358 million paid subscriptions industrywide. The surge in number undoubtedly reflected Spotify and Apple Music‘s continued growth, but also falls in line with exclusive content, such as podcasts being offered to subscribers to sweeten the deal.
Spotify led the pack in earnings last year, netting 31 percent of the industry’s total revenue, with Apple Music closely trailing with 24 percent. On the Swedish streaming company’s paramount success, Research Analyst Abhilash Kumar comments,
“Spotify maintained its top spot with the help of promotional activities like free Spotify Premium for three months, price cuts, customized campaigns like Spotify and a focus on exclusive content. Tech giants like Amazon, Apple, Google have started focusing on music streaming and have sufficient cash at their disposal to give stiff competition to Spotify. Apple Music is making improvements in its app like the introduction of night mode, curated playlists to target a group, etc. Similarly, Amazon Music has been trying lossless music and is creating its own niche where it competes with Tidal.”
As staggering as those numbers may be, it seems like the growth is far from over, as the industry anticipates almost 100 million new subscribers in 2020.
Via: Counterpoint Research
