A new report from the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority on Music streaming offers interesting statistics related to the country’s music streaming market. As per the report, Apple Music holds a 10-20% share in the region while Amazon holds up to 30% and Spotify takes first place with a market share of 50-60%.
Spotify continues to be the top music streaming service in the UK, and Apple Music is third in the region
In June, a survey revealed that over one million users in the United States canceled their subscriptions to music streaming services such as Apple Music and Spotify in the first quarter of 2022, due to rising inflation. Another factor the survey highlighted is the ongoing cost-of-living crisis in the region.
According to a new report published on Tuesday, the UK CMA’s Music and streaming market study, streaming services are still performing fairly well in the United Kingdom and that competition between services is working “reasonably well for consumers.”
For consumers, the monthly price of music streaming services is either free (ad-funded) or is falling in real terms as the price of individual subscriptions have remained stable and not kept pace with inflation. Most services offer a range of price plans, including family and student plans, as well as free ad-funded tiers. Streaming services are now also frequently bundled with other services, such as mobile phone subscriptions, and accessed via a range of devices, including smart speakers.
As per the figures cited in the report, there are 39 million monthly active users in the UK streaming 138 billion songs a month. These users describe streaming as “the primary means for artists and labels to distribute music.”
Spotify’s share makes up over half the market with 50-60%, Amazon holds 20-30% and Apple Music holds a figure anywhere between 10-20%. As for other streaming services, SoundCloud holds 5-10% while YouTube Music, Deezer, and Tidal each hold a market share between 0-5%.
The report further adds that growing competition between the services around offering the best experience to consumers through good design, personalized playlists, and high-quality audio content, as well as through pricing plans, is helping each service expand its market share. Such services are also beginning to offer content unrelated to music such as podcasts, allowing them to tap into an entirely new demographic.
