Fighting for supremacy in music streaming

Global subscribers of music streaming services soared by 30 million in the first six months of 2017, as Amazon quietly became the third largest music streaming provider behind Apple and Spotify

GLOBAL MUSIC STREAMING SUBSCRIBERS* (in millions / market share)

Rihanna, Spotify’s most streamed female artist of 2017

58m / 36%
Oct 2008: Swedish startup launches Spotify music streaming service — free to use with advertisements, or without ads with paid subscription

Other: 38.1m / 24%
5.6m / 3%
6.3m / 4%
10.4m / 6% 
16m / 10%
28.2m / 17%

Oct 2016: Amazon launches Music Unlimited subscription service, with 20% discount for Prime members

Dec, 2017: Apple buys Shazam for $400m to acquire its massive database of music tastes and ability to predict future hits. Previously licensed to Spotify and Apple Music (latter launched Jun 2015)

Mar 2018: YouTube (owned by Google’s parent company Alphabet) plans to launch its long-rumoured Remix music streaming service (presently YouTube attracts more than one billion music users per month)

Sources: MIDIA, The Verge, Bloomberg    Picture: Getty Images *June 2017 © GRAPHIC NEWS