Online Music Streaming Market Expected to Reach $24,711.3 Million by 2027—Allied Market Research

According to a new report published by Allied Market Research, titled, Online Music Streaming Market by Service, Revenue Model, Platform, End User, and Content Type: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2021–2027,” the global online music streaming market size is expected to reach $24,711.3 million by 2027 at a CAGR of 9.8% from 2021 to 2027.  

Online music streaming is a means of delivering music without downloading any file from the internet. Music is stored on the servers’ database and is instantly transferred to the streamer or users’ device in real time over the internet. Online music streaming services allows users to stream online music videos, audio songs, podcasts, and live performances of artists. Online music streaming service providers offer certain features such as customized playlists, song recommendations, and easy accessibility to music on both the app and browser platforms. Increase in popularity of podcasts is attracting consumers’ attention lately, and is expected to drive the growth of the global market during the forecast period. In addition, online music streaming has gained high traction in the past few years, due to surge in adoption of smart devices such as smartphones and increase in popularity of digital platforms such as Spotify, Amazon Music, and Deezer. Moreover, wide-scale penetration of internet across the globe is positively impacting the online music streaming market.

The emergence of online music streaming platforms such as Spotify and Apple Music has drastically reduced the illegal sharing and downloading of music over the internet that generated no revenue to the music labels and artists. This has notably minimized the threat of piracy, thus making online music streaming platforms a reliable option for artists and music labels such as Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony Music Entertainment, and Warner Music Group. Moreover, the constantly growing number of subscribers on music streaming platforms is increasing the audience globally. Moreover, high-quality, hassle-free services, free trials, and discounted prices offered by music streaming service providers attract a huge customer base. According to the International Federation of Phonographic Industry (IFPI), around 62.1% of the revenue of the global recorded music market comes from online streaming. These factors are anticipated to or propel the growth of the global online music streaming market during the forecast period. 

The outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic boosted the growth of the global online music streaming market. During the first phase of the pandemic, certain behavioral changes prevailed among consumers. According to the Tencent Music Entertainment, people were engaged in streaming music using home appliances such as TV more than their smartphones during the lockdown. Moreover, upsurge has been witnessed in the number of subscribers on various platforms such as Spotify, Tencent Music Entertainment, and Amazon Music. People in the U.S. were streaming more of the video content rather than the audio content. Therefore, the pandemic boosted the growth of the video segment. Hence, the COVID-19 had a positive impact on the global online music streaming industry.

The online music streaming market is segmented into service, revenue model, platform, end user, content type, and region. On the basis of service, the market is bifurcated into on-demand streaming and live streaming. By revenue model, it is segregated into subscription and non-subscription based model. As per platform, it is categorized into app and browser. Depending on end user, it is differentiated into individual and commercial. According to content type, it is fragmented into audio and video content. Region wise, it is analyzed across North America (the U.S., Canada, and Mexico), Europe (the UK, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, and rest of Europe), Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, India, South Korea, Australia, and rest of Asia-Pacific), and LAMEA (Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa).

According to the online music streaming market forecast, on the basis of service, the on-demand streaming segment was the highest contributor to the market, with $9,003.7 million in 2019, and is expected to sustain its significance during the forecast period, due to ease and convenience of streaming music according to the users’ mood and time. The live online music streaming is expected to exhibit a substantial growth during the forecast period, due to increase in activities of popular artists over the internet. 

On the basis of the revenue model, the subscription model was the dominating segment in 2019, due to immense increase in the number of paid subscribers in the past few years. Moreover, most of the players in the global online music streaming market operate on the non-subscription or the freemium model majorly to attract huge customer base. Spotify, the leading player in the market, focuses majorly on the subscription model, whereas Pandora, one of the major players, focuses on the freemium model. 

According to the online music streaming market trends, based on the platform, the app segment led the online music streaming market globally. This is attributed to the fact that app is the most convenient, easy, and popular platform for streaming online music, due to rise in penetration of smartphones and internet across the globe. Furthermore, major market players are competing on the browser platform to gain market share. For example, Apple, Inc. announced the launch of Apple Music player for web in 2020. Hence, browser acts as a remunerative segment for the market players.

On the basis of end user, the individual segment garnered the highest online music streaming market share of 76.3% in 2019, owing to the fact that emergence of online music streaming services have enabled users to access millions of songs easily. Moreover, changes in lifestyle of individuals, which comprise listening to music during commuting, daily chores, and exercising have propelled the growth of the individual segment. According to the online music streaming market forecast, the commercial segment is expected to grow at a promising rate, due to the development of commercial complexes, restaurants, gyms, health clubs, and malls. All these commercial spaces use music streaming services to offer a pleasing ambience to their customers.

As per content type, the audio segment exhibited the highest growth, , as users listen to music during daily chores, travelling, jogging, and exercising. Thus, busy and hectic lifestyle of consumer enables them to access the audio content easily as compared to that of the video content. However, increase in popularity of over-the-top (OTT) and short video platforms is expected to boost the growth of the video segment during the forecast period. 

According to the global online music streaming market analysis, in 2019, North America dominated the market, garnering 38.1% of market share, followed by Europe. North America and Europe are characterized by high disposable income and elevated demand & consumption of music, thus making them the leading online music streaming markets. However, Asia-Pacific is expected to show promising growth rate, due to rise in penetration of internet and increase in adoption of smartphone coupled with surge in internet users. LAMEA is estimated to grow at the fastest rate, due to surge in demand for local and regional songs among consumers.

The players operating in the global online music streaming market have adopted various developmental strategies to expand their market share, exploit the online music streaming market opportunity, and increase profitability in the market. The key players profiled in this report include Amazon, Inc., Anghami, Apple, Inc., Deezer, iHeartRadio, NetEase, Inc., Pandora Media, LLC., Spotify AB, Tencent Music Entertainment, and Tidal. 

Key findings of the study  

• The online music streaming market size was valued at $12,831.2 million in 2019, and is estimated to reach $24,711.3 million by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 9.8% during the forecast period.  
• By content type, the video segment is estimated to witness the fastest growth, registering a CAGR of 10.1% during the forecast period.
• In 2019, depending on revenue model, the subscription segment was valued at $9,586.5 million, accounting for 74.7% of the global online music streaming market share.  
• In 2019, the U.S. was the most prominent market in North America, and is projected to reach $4,197.5 million by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 9.5% during the forecast period.