Global Music Streaming Users Surge in the Last Decade

A Statista-processed IFPI report shows rapid growth in paid music streaming subscribers over the past decade.

By 2023, paid streaming services reached 667 million subscribers across all music platforms. This represents an increase of 78 million new users compared to 2022, which had 589 million subscribers.

“[This figure grew] 15 years after the launch of Spotify in Europe, which ushered in the streaming era,” Statista wrote on its website, as quoted on Sunday (7/4/2024).

Looking back, the total number of paid music subscribers started with only 8 million in 2010. The number then surpassed 100 million in 2016, 250 million in 2018, and 500 million in 2021.

“With the current growth rate, it will take a few more years before music streaming services reach one billion users,” Statista wrote.

Streaming in the music industry previously struggled with declining revenue for 15 years, according to Statista.

Statista also revealed that streaming accounted for 67% of global recorded music revenue in 2023, as the number of streaming subscriptions offered by Spotify and other platforms continues to surge.

However, it must be acknowledged that the growth rate is not as high as in previous years.

(Also read: [link to article about Spotify Premium subscribers])