Forecast: Music Streaming Growing Faster Than Originally Thought

Goldman Sachs analysts are raising previously-reported industry forecasts by an average of 4 percent over the next decade, now predicting the industry to grow into a $45 billion beast with a paid streaming population of 1.15 billion by 2030, reports Billboard.

In its 2017 dossier, the research team led by Lisa Yang originally projected the industry to pull in $44 billion annually by then, putting the population of paid users at 900 million. But fueled by faster-than-expected adoption of paid subscriptions, she's upping paid streaming forecasts by 6 percent on average over the period, predicting that the population of paid users will balloon to 690 million by 2023 alone.

Yang also predicts that paid streaming will generate $27.5 billion in the forecast period -- up from $27.1 billion, and that overall annual global streaming revenues, including ad-supported, will reach $37.2 billion.

The new numbers coincide with IFPI's recent 2018 Global Music Report, which rung in the fourth consecutive year of growth for global music sales -- up to $19.1 billion, a nearly 10 percent rise on 2017's numbers. Actual market figures were 1 percent ahead of Yang's forecasts: Total paid streaming users came in at 255 million in 2018, slightly more than the 237 million predicted.

The report partly attributes the boom to promising recent updates from major labels and streaming services, signifying sustained momentum in the streaming market.