That earworm you just heard (and have been humming for half the day) is likely brought to you by one of the 10 most popular music streaming services in 2017.
As of the end of 2016, the total number of paid subscriptions on the various music streaming services around the world reached 100 million, according to MIDiA Research, a music-centric research agency. This milestone is important, because the 100 million figure is commonly mentioned as the mark at which point a certain service is considered widespread. Having 100 million people paying for a service means there is a lot of money to go around, and in the case of music streaming providers, a multitude of ears to stream music to.
The large consumer base for streaming music, regardless of platform, bodes well for the industry’s prospects in the future. After all, while there are 7 billion more people to offer streaming to, having 100 million will certainly help in the process of gaining more subscribers. In addition, reaching the milestone resulted in increased investor interest in these services, which translates to a potential increase in money to spend to grow that customer base. After all, streaming music revenue grew by 49% in 2016 to reach $5.4 billion, with subscription services accounting for $2.5 billion of that total.
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As for which of these music streaming service is better than the others, we compared some of the most popular services in a piece entitled Apple Music vs Pandora vs Spotify vs iHeartRadio & More: The Best Music Streaming Service Right Now. Be sure to check it out.
For the purposes of this list, we’re defining music streaming as the delivery of on-demand, playable music through the internet. Some of these services offer fully customizable playback, with options for creating your own cloud-based online playlist, while others stream a pre-packaged slate of radio stations based on genre, mood, artist, or other categorizations.
The leading online music streaming services release subscription and listenership figures using different time periods and methods. Some services unveil these numbers regularly, while others, mainly private platforms, or even those owned by public but highly secretive companies, only release estimates sporadically. In other cases, the figures come from estimates by third party tech-centric analysts.
Nonetheless, subscription and listenership figures for the 10 most popular music streaming services in 2017, which includes Amazon Music Unlimited and Amazon Prime Music from Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), Apple Music from Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), Deezer, iHeartRadio from iHeartMedia Inc (OTCMKTS:IHRT), Napster, Pandora Media Inc (NYSE:P), Spotify, Tidal, and YouTube from Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL), are all as of late-2016 or early-2017.
Check out the list of the most popular music streaming services in the world beginning on the next page.
