Estimates suggest that Apple Music had 95 million subscribers worldwide in June 2024, up by 2 million from the previous year. Launched in 2015 by U.S. tech giant Apple, Apple Music is the second largest music streaming service worldwide, competing with market leader Spotify. Spotify remains market leader While Apple Music is a popular music streaming platform, accounting for 12.6 percent of subscribers worldwide, the 2008 founded streaming service Spotify remains the market leader with a subscriber share of nearly 32 percent. Financially this meant that the Swedish company generated a global revenue of 3.7 billion euros through its Premium accounts in the fourth quarter of 2024 alone.Music streaming overall increasesOverall, music streaming has experienced significant growth over the last decade. Even if the annual growth rate is gradually declining, it still stood at over 7 percent in 2024, becoming the music industry’s main revenue driver and reaching a revenue of 20 billion U.S. dollars worldwide in 2024.

In the fourth quarter of 2024, ***percent of music streaming subscribers worldwide had a subscription with Spotify, more than ****** the share who were subscribed to the second-ranked Tencent Music. Other services in the list included Apple Music, Amazon, and YouTube. Beyond Spotify – other streaming services Spotify may be the biggest music streaming service in the world, but despite its arguably immense popularity and impressive number of subscribers, it hasn’t achieved global domination just yet. French service Deezer has more than tripled its worldwide subscriber base in the last few years, and although its subscriber numbers don’t come close to Spotify’s, Deezer’s growth goes to show that Spotify hasn’t quite won the hearts of every music streaming fans out there. Another popular streaming service used worldwide is Apple Music, which is in constant competition with Spotify in the United States in particular. Regardless of subscriber numbers though, in the U.S. Spotify is still considered more preferable than Apple Music. Apple is often reluctant to publish their customer numbers, though sources in early 2019 suggested that the service had overtaken Spotify in the U.S. in terms of paid subscribers. That said, Spotify still held the biggest share of overall users, and trends suggest that this will continue.

According to a study held between the third and fourth quarters of 2018, 38 percent of surveyed internet users in the APAC countries (excluding China) had an paid Apple Music subscription, compared to just 59 percent of respondents in North America. The majority of users worldwide used Apple Music for free, however the majority of North Americans had a premium account.

This statistic gives information on the most popular music streaming services in the United States as of March 2018, ranked by number of smartphone users. During this month, 44.6 million people used the Apple Music service via smartphone.

This statistic shows the total number of users of Spotify, Apple Music and Deezer in the Netherlands as of the first quarter of 2018 (in thousands). Exact user numbers for certain apps are rare to find in the Netherlands. According to the source, the total number of Spotify users in the Netherlands was forecast to reach *** million in the first quarter of 2018. Additionally, the source mentions that *** million users are paid users. This is because a part of these subscriptions come from a third party, such as telecom provider KPN where Spotify is a part of their telecom package. As of January 2019, Spotify had an online reach, a percentage of visitors that visited content at least once during a certain period of time, of *** million in the Netherlands in January 2019.

This statistic gives information on the share of Apple Music in the United States as of February 2018, by age. During this month, 17 percent of Apple Music users were aged between 18 and 24.

This statistic presents data on the share of iOS users who listen to Apple Music in the United States in the first half of 2016 and the first half of 2017. According to the source, ** percent of iOS users listened to Apple Music on mobile in the first half of 2017, up from ** percent a year earlier.

According to a study from August 2023 on music streaming in Europe, the number of music streaming users is estimated to rise further over the next few years to over *** million in 2027. The number of users has continously been rising since 2017, only experiencing a slight dip in 2022.

By 2025, Spotify will have ***** million users, over ****** million more than the **** million recorded in 2020. However, a gradual decline in Pandora's user base is anticipated to continue over the coming years, with the company losing *** to ***** million active listeners per year. Spotify and Pandora – more information Pandora In 2018, Pandora was most popular among users aged ** to ** and users aged 55 or above, whereas adults in the ** to 24-year-old age bracket was by far the company's weakest market segment. Pandora's user base may be flatlining compared to Spotify's, but Pandora’s revenue jumped from **** million U.S. dollars to almost *** billion in a decade, showing incredible and consistent growth during that time. Pandora generates most of its revenue from advertising, although has grown increasingly reliant on revenue from subscription services. Pandora was acquired by Sirius XM in February 2019 for *** billion U.S. dollars. Spotify In 2018, Spotify reported *** billion euros in revenue, following a history of significant growth. Spotify was operating at a loss for years, but reported its first quarterly operating profit at the beginning of 2019. the company has placed a stronger focus on podcasts and will continue to do so according to industry experts and company reports, and is one of the most popular podcast providers in the United States.

Over the last two observations, the number of users is forecast to significantly increase in all segments. This reflects the overall trend throughout the entire forecast period from 2017 to 2027. It is estimated that the indicator is continuously rising in all segments. In this regard, the Music Downloads segment achieves the highest value of **** million users in 2027. The Statista Market Insights cover a broad range of additional markets.

The number of users in the 'Music Streaming' segment of the digital media market in Vietnam was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2027 by in total *** million users (+***** percent). After the tenth consecutive increasing year, the indicator is estimated to reach **** million users and therefore a new peak in 2027. Notably, the number of users of the 'Music Streaming' segment of the digital media market was continuously increasing over the past years.Find other key market indicators concerning the revenue growth and average revenue per user (ARPU). The Statista Market Insights cover a broad range of additional markets.

How many paid subscribers does Spotify have? As of the first quarter of 2025, Spotify had 268 million premium subscribers worldwide, up from 239 million in the corresponding quarter of 2024. Spotify’s subscriber base has increased dramatically in the last few years and has more than doubled since early 2019. Spotify and competitors Spotify is a music streaming service originally founded in 2006 in Sweden. The platform can be used from various devices and allows users to browse through a catalogue of music licensed through multiple record labels, as well as creating and sharing playlists with other users. Additionally, listeners are able to enjoy music for free with advertisements or are also given the option to purchase a subscription to allow for unlimited ad-free music streaming. Spotify’s largest competitors are Pandora, a company that offers a similar service and remains popular in the United States, and Apple Music, which was launched in 2015. While Pandora was once among the highest-grossing music apps in the Apple App Store, recent rankings show that global services like QQ Music, NetEase Cloud Music, and YouTube Music now generate higher monthly revenues.Users are also able to register Spotify accounts using Facebook directly through the website using an app. This enables them to connect with other Facebook friends and explore their music tastes and playlists. Spotify is a popular source for keeping up-to-date with music, and the ability to enjoy Spotify anywhere at any time allows consumers to shape their music consumption around their lifestyles and preferences.

The number of users in the 'Music Streaming' segment of the digital media market in Singapore was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2027 by in total *** million users (+***** percent). After the tenth consecutive increasing year, the indicator is estimated to reach *** million users and therefore a new peak in 2027. Notably, the number of users of the 'Music Streaming' segment of the digital media market was continuously increasing over the past years.Find other key market indicators concerning the revenue and user penetration. The Statista Market Insights cover a broad range of additional markets.

The number of users is forecast to experience significant growth in all segments in 2027. Concerning the four selected segments, the segment Music Streaming has the largest number of users with ***** million users. Contrastingly, Podcast Advertising is ranked last, with **** million users. Their difference, compared to Music Streaming, lies at ***** million users. The Statista Market Insights cover a broad range of additional markets.

As of the fourth quarter of 2018, Apple Music users in North America spent an average of *** hours and ** minutes streaming music on the platform each day. More time was spent on Apple Music than on Spotify by users in all regions, and European internet users were the only ones in the study who spent less than *** minutes per day streaming on Spotify.

The number of users is forecast to experience significant growth in all segments in 2027. Concerning the four selected segments, the segment Music Streaming has the largest number of users with ***** million users. Contrastingly, Music Downloads is ranked last, with ***** million users. Their difference, compared to Music Streaming, lies at ***** million users. The Statista Market Insights cover a broad range of additional markets.

The most successful music streaming service in the United States was Apple Music as of September, with the most up to date information showing that 49.5 million users accessed the platform each month. Spotify closely followed, with a similarly impressive 47.7 million monthly users.

What is a music streaming service?

Music streaming services provide their users with a database compiled of songs, playlists, albums and videos, where content can be accessed online, downloaded, shared, bookmarked and organized.

The music streaming business is huge, and has sometimes been lauded as the savior of the music industry. The biggest two services are in constant competition for the monopoly of the market. Apple Music was launched in 2015, whereas Spotify has been around since 2008. Other popular streaming services include Deezer, SoundCloud and iHeartRadio.

Do artists make a lot of money from streaming services? 

In short, unfortunately not. Both Apple Music and Spotify have been frequently criticized for the tiny royalty payments they offer artists. Particularly for emerging talent, streaming services are far from a lucrative source of income. Bigger, established stars like Taylor Swift are more likely to regularly make a good amount of money this way. But either way, a track needs to go viral or be streamed several million times before it earns any real cash.

The number of users is forecast to experience significant growth in all segments in 2027. The trend observed from 2017 to 2027 remains consistent throughout the entire forecast period. There is a continuous increase in the indicator across all segments. Notably, the Music Downloads segment achieves the highest value of **** million users at 2027. The Statista Market Insights cover a broad range of additional markets.

The number of users in the 'Music Streaming' segment of the digital media market in Japan was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2027 by in total *** million users (+**** percent). After the tenth consecutive increasing year, the indicator is estimated to reach ***** million users and therefore a new peak in 2027. Notably, the number of users of the 'Music Streaming' segment of the digital media market was continuously increasing over the past years. The Statista Market Insights cover a broad range of additional markets.

As of the third quarter 2023, Apple Music had **** active subscriptions worldwide, whereas Tencent had ***** million subscribers globally. Spotify ranked first by a huge margin, with *** million commercially active subscriptions.