As the driving force of the music industry, streaming platforms have seen impressive subscription growth in the past years. With millions of Gen Zs and Millenials who prefer the subscription economy, their revenues and user count have more than doubled.
According to data presented by OnlyAccounts.io, the music streaming platforms have added more than 330 million subscribers in the last five years, with their total number rising to almost 590 million in 2022.
Music Streaming Subscriptions Grew by an Average of 80 million Per Year
The music industry is far from where it was eight years ago, thanks to streaming platforms like Spotify, YouTube Music, and Apple Music. After struggling with plunging revenues for more than 15 years, the entire market has continuously grown since 2014, mostly due to a surging number of music streaming subscriptions.
According to Statista data, around 41 million people used music streaming services that year. By the end of 2018, the streaming platforms had six times more subscribers. That year alone, 79 million people jumped on the streaming bandwagon, bringing the total number of users to 255 million.
The next two years saw even more significant growth, with the subscriber count soaring by 86 million in 2019 and 102 million in 2020. Although growth rates in 2021 and 2022 weren’t as high as in the previous years, the streaming platforms still added 146 million new subscribers, with the total user count reaching almost 590 million.
Analyzed by platforms, Spotify is convincingly the largest player in the market, with 188 million subscribers or 31% of the world’s total last year. Apple Music and YouTube Music follow, with 88 million and 80 million subscribers, respectively.
Music Streaming Revenues More than Doubled in Five Years; Entire Industry to Hit $25.7B Value in 2023
Thanks to hundreds of millions of users worldwide, the music streaming platforms have more than doubled their revenues in five years. According to Statista, the entire market grossed $23.2bn in 2022, up from $11.7bn in 2018. This figure is set to grow by another 10% and hit $25.7bn in 2023.
Almost 40% of total revenue, or $10.2bn, comes from the United States, the largest music streaming market. Far below, China, the United Kingdom, and Germany follow, with $3.1bn, $1.9bn, and $1.4bn in revenue, respectively.
Statista expects the music streaming revenues to grow by another 18% in the next four years, with the entire market reaching over $30bn value.
