Background Music Strategy
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Music Streaming Market Share and Revenue Statistics: Details on the Biggest Music Streaming Services
by Ryan Santangelo, Ph.D., Co-Founder & CEO, Dynamic Media
Music streaming has changed everything — how the music industry operates, how we listen to music at home and how background music is played at businesses. A handful of music streaming platforms dominate the landscape. But which are the biggest music streaming services? And which has the largest share of the market?
In this article, we’ll look at music streaming market share and revenue statistics, as well as the size of various digital music libraries. We’ll also review the penalties that arise when business owners illegally play music at their businesses and how SiriusXM Music for Business can help you avoid copyright infringement with its streaming music service.
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The Global Music Streaming Market
Before we look at music streaming market share numbers, let’s talk about the size of the overall streaming industry. The worldwide music streaming market was estimated at $29.5 billion in 2021. About 70% of the market is devoted to on-demand streaming. The popularity of music streaming apps will only rise as the global streaming market is expected to increase at a compounded annual growth rate of 14.7% through 2030.
As of the second quarter of 2021, 523.9 million people worldwide subscribed to a music streaming service. That’s an increase of 26.4% from 414.4 million in the same quarter of 2020.
The Importance of Music for Businesses
It’s essential to remember that millions of businesses, like restaurants, cafes, retail stores, and spas, also stream background music. Research has shown the critical role music can play in customers’ perceptions and actions. For instance, a HUI Research study found that restaurants can boost revenue by more than 9% when they play purposely selected background music that matches their customers’ demographics.
Carefully curated playlists, like those found at SiriusXM Music for Business, can directly affect a business’s bottom line. Now let’s look at the music streaming services’ market share figures.
Who Has the Largest Music Streaming Market Share?
Based on the percentage of subscribers, there’s a clear winner when it comes to music streaming market share. Spotify’s market share comes out on top at 31%. The nearest competitor is Apple Music’s market share at 15%.
Here’s a quick rundown of the top global streaming services by their percentage of market share:
- Spotify: 31%
- Apple Music: 15%
- Amazon Music: 13%
- Tencent Music: 13%
- YouTube Music: 8%
Tencent Music is China’s music streaming platform.
Music Streaming Market Share by the Numbers
The music streaming services’ market share can also be broken out by the number of subscribers globally:
- Spotify: 406 million
- Apple Music: 78 million
- Amazon Music: 55 million
- Tencent Music: 55 million
- YouTube Music: 50 million
The YouTube figure is based on the total number of subscribers for YouTube Premium, which includes YouTube music.
Spotify’s subscribers increased by 20% year over year in the second quarter of 2021, even though its music streaming market share percentage decreased from 34% in 2019 to 33% in 2020.
Amazon Music’s subscribers increased by 25%, and YouTube Music’s subscriber base increased by more than 50%.
The U.S. Music Streaming Market
Regionally, the U.S. music streaming market also continues to grow. There was an average of 84 million subscriptions in 2021, up 11% from 75.5 million in 2020. Besides Apple Music and Spotify, other popular U.S. music streaming services, based on their number of subscribers, include:
- SiriusXM: 34.1 million
- Pandora: 6.3 million
While Pandora’s paid subscriptions stood at 6.3 million, its number of active listeners is estimated at 52 million.
Music Streaming Revenue Statistics
With a global market worth $29.5 billion, it’s obvious that there’s big money involved in music streaming, and the music services reported impressive streaming revenue figures in 2021:
- Spotify: $11.4 billion
- SiriusXM: $6.6 billion
- Apple Music: $5 billion
- Pandora: $2 billion
Music Streaming Libraries
Besides music streaming market share, revenue and subscriber numbers, another way to gauge music streaming services is by the size of their libraries. Reported figures for the major platforms include:
- Spotify: 80 million
- Apple Music: 75 million
- Pandora: 30 million
- Amazon Music: 2 million
The Amazon Music figure is for the version of Amazon Music that comes free with Amazon Prime memberships. The company says its Amazon Music Unlimited service offers 90 million songs.
Where Music Streaming Goes Wrong
Music streaming dominates the music industry, but there are some pitfalls. Most importantly, business owners can’t use their personal streaming subscriptions to play music at their businesses. Streaming your personal Spotify or Apple Music for business purposes constitutes copyright infringement.
The punishment for violating copyright laws can be severe. Over the past few years, these businesses had to pay the following fines:
- III Amici Ristorante (New Jersey): $24,000
- Tadpole’s (Florida): $30,000
- Foster’s (North Carolina): $30,450
- Roscoe’s (California): $36,000
- Outback Saloon (Colorado): $40,000
ASCAP, one of the performing rights organizations (PROs) that police copyright issues, reported that it filed lawsuits against another seven businesses in August 2022.
SiriusXM Music for Business: A Reasonable Alternative
The penalties for copyright infringement are substantial. One option to avoid issues is to sign licenses with the various PROs to legally play the music created by their member artists. The problem is that different PROs represent different artists, meaning you must manage multiple licenses to cover your bases. Plus, the licensing fees can be expensive.
That’s where SiriusXM Music for Business comes in. We offer satellite radio and streaming music services for commercial use that are already licensed and legal for you to use. With more than 240 channels and 10,000+ Pandora artist stations, you have a nearly infinite number of possibilities for playing music at your business. Our library includes today’s top artists and the most popular music genres.
Music Streaming and Revenue Statistics Summary (2022)
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Stream Music Legally With SiriusXM Music for Business
Now that you know music streaming market share and revenue figures, you’re ready for the next step. At SiriusXM Music for Business, we understand your business needs and have specifically developed our streaming services to meet commercial requirements like yours.
Starting at just $26.95 a month, you can have peace of mind and access to a fantastic library of music designed to please your customers and amplify your brand. Contact us now and take advantage of everything we have to offer.
