Wednesday, September 7, 2016

100M Now Paying For Streaming Music

There are now more than 100 million people paying for streaming music services, with Spotify is easily leading the pack, according to Digital Music News.

Streaming music services collectively crossed the 100 million-mark this month, with Spotify, Sirius XM Radio, and Apple Music driving more than 85% of the total.  Just recently, Spotify executive Troy Carter revealed that Spotify had crossed 39 million paying subscribers, a figure that more than doubles Apple Music’s estimated 17 million.

Officially, Apple last disclosed 15 million paying subscribers, though at a rate of 1 million new subscribers per month, their current estimate lands at 17 million.

Sirius XM Radio, meanwhile, has been steadily racking up streaming radio subscribers.  Amidst improving financials, the satellite radio giant disclosed 30.6 million paying subscribers during a recently quarterly announcement.

Others, like Tidal, Deezer, and Napster, are all contributing low-millions, with Tidal reportedly pushing past the 5 million-mark (though its most recent disclosure was 3 million, with 1.5 million paying for hi-fidelity premium plans).  SoundCloud Go and YouTube Red have yet to share any subscription totals, and it’s unclear whether either service is managing to convert substantial paying subscribers.

In total, there are approximately 103.1 million people paying, worldwide, though we’re guessing there are some smaller groups we may have missed.  That raises the distinct possibility that streaming music services could reach the 200 million threshold as soon as 2017, with bigger numbers like 500 million attainable by 2020.

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