Still the top choice for music streaming
Counterpoint has released its 2019 report for music streaming, and things are looking good: Year-to-Year growth on paid subscriptions has grown by 32%. Counterpoint credits this to music streaming platforms offering exclusive content in the form of podcasts, along with promotional price cuts in emerging markets. With this trend, Counterpoint predicts a 25% growth on paid subscriptions by end of 2020.
As for preferred music streaming platform, Spotify remains to be on top with 35% paid subscription market share, followed by Apple Music and Amazon Music garnering 19% and 15% market share respectively. Research analyst Abhilash Kumar credits Spotify’s dominance with its promotional price cuts (ie. free Spotify Premium for 3 months), along with exclusive content. Apple Music and Amazon Music are catching up through different approaches: Apple Music is focused on improving the app’s overall user experience while Amazon Music prioritizes the availability of lossless, ultra-high quality music to compete against Tidal.
With the effects caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Kumar expects regional streaming platforms to experience an increase in users as more people stay at home in efforts to flatten the curve.