Music Streaming Services Stats (2025)

Music streaming has completely changed the music industry.

In fact, the vast majority of music listeners now rely on music streaming platforms.

The following report will dive into some of the most important industry statistics.

Music Streaming Services (Top Stats)

• Music streaming makes up 84% of music industry revenue
• The music streaming industry grew by over 10% over the last year
• Music streaming’s global revenue currently sits at $17.5 billion
• Paid music streaming makes up 23% of all music streaming
• 78% of people listen to music via a streaming service
• Over 600 million subscribe to a music streaming platform

Music Streaming Industry

Music streaming accounts for 89% of total music industry revenue (Forbes)

Recent data shows that the music industry is heavily reliant on streaming.

Music streaming platforms grew by over 10% last year (IFPI)

According to IFPI’s Global Music Report 2024, music streaming services grew by 10.4% in 2023.

This follows a 10.2% increase in the global music industry as a whole – a 9th successive year of growth.

Music streaming revenue has surpassed $19 billion annually (IFPI)

Revenue from music streaming has grown year over year since the mid-2000s.

Between 2010 and 2020, revenue increased by around 34x from $0.4 billion to $13.6 billion.

And in 2023, music streaming revenue stood at approximately $19.3 billion.

Here’s a look at how music streaming revenue has increased over time:

Year	Music Streaming Revenue
2005	$0.1 billion
2006	$0.1 billion
2007	$0.2 billion
2008	$0.3 billion
2009	$0.4 billion
2010	$0.4 billion
2011	$0.6 billion
2012	$1 billion
2013	$1.4 billion
2014	$1.9 billion
2015	$2.8 billion
2016	$4.6 billion
2017	$6.5 billion
2018	$9.2 billion
2019	$11.4 billion
2020	$13.6 billion
2021	$16.9 billion
2022	$17.5 billion
2023	$19.3 billion

Music Streaming Market Share

Around one-quarter of all music consumption is comprised of paid music streaming (IFPI)

Paid music streaming makes up 23% of all music consumption.

Here’s a breakdown of the most popular music sources:

Music Consumption Source	Percentage
Paid music streaming	23%
Video streaming	22%
Radio	16%
Short videos (TikToks)	11%
Ad-supported music streaming	9%
Purchased music (CDs, downloads)	9%
Other (Netflix, music borrowing)	5%
Social media	3%
Live shows	2%

Music streaming platforms make up 67% of worldwide music industry revenue (IFPI)

Globally, 67% of total music industry revenue comes directly from music streaming platforms.

By comparison, just 16.1% of revenue now comes from physical sales.

Streaming accounts for 84% of US music industry revenue (IFPI, RIAA)

In the US, the reliance the music industry has on music streaming services is even more pronounced.

In total, 84% of US music industry revenue comes from music streaming, while physical sales are responsible for only 11%.

Music streaming revenue is predicted to hit $30 billion in 2027 (Statista)

Music streaming and digital music’s average revenue per user is expected to continue to increase over the coming years. However, figures are forecast to somewhat plateau.

Here’s a look at the digital music market forecast:

Year	Music Streaming	Digital Music	Music Downloads
2019	$25.48	$17.09	$3.36
2020	$27.87	$19.33	$2.96
2021	$28.12	$20.64	$2.61
2022	$28.02	$22.06	$2.32
2023	$28.12	$22.99	$2.20
2024	$29.99	$24.98	$2.11
2025	$30.14	$25.64	$2.08
2026	$30.24	$26.10	$1.98
2027	$30.33	$26.44	$1.89

Music Streaming Users

Around 2 in 3 people listen to music using a streaming service (IFPI)

Approximately 67.3% listen to music using some form of music streaming service.

The number of music streaming subscribers has increased by around 10x since 2015 (IFPI, MIDiA Research)

Since Q4 2015, the number of music streaming subscribers has risen from 68 million to 616.2 million in Q2 2022 – an increase of almost 10x.

Here’s a breakdown of music streaming subscribers over time:

Year	Music Streaming Subscribers	Increase Over Previous Year
Q4 2015	68 million	-
Q4 2016	100.4 million	+47.6%
Q4 2017	198.6 million	+97.8%
Q1 2018	229.5 million	+15.5%
Q1 2019	304.9 million	+32.8%
Q4 2019	341 million	+11.8%
Q1 2020	400 million	+17.3%
Q4 2020	443 million	+10.7%
Q1 2021	487 million	+9.9%
Q2 2021	523.9 million	+7.6%
Q2 2022	616.2 million	+17.6%

Over 4 trillion songs were streamed in the US in 2023 (Music Business Worldwide)

Collectively, Americans streamed around 4.1 trillion songs in 2023 – up from 2022’s 3.4 trillion streams.

In total, over 80 million Americans use a premium streaming service to listen to music (RIAA)

Here are the numbers for US premium music service subscribers over time:

Music Streaming Demographic

Around 3 in 5 of all 25 to 34-year-olds have an audio subscription service to stream music (IFPI)

62% of all 25 to 34-year-olds use audio subscription services for music listening.

And while older generations are less likely to have an audio streaming subscription, around 1 in 4 (28%) 55 to 64-year-olds do so.

Here are IFPI’s music subscription service figures by age bracket:

Almost all Gen Z Americans use a music streaming service (MCR)

Americans are among the most likely to stream music across all age brackets.

The difference across generations is often more pronounced in other countries.

For example, Americans listen to music using a streaming service in a typical week. This is compared to 98% for US Millennials, 96% for Gen X, and 89% for Boomers.

By comparison, 77% of Gen Z regularly listen to music using streaming services in the UK. And 79% of British Millennials also do so. However, the drop-off from there is far more dramatic, with only 67% of Gen Xers and 41% of Boomers using a music streaming service in a typical week.

Below, several nations’ music streaming habits are compared by generation:

Nation	Gen Z	Millennials	Gen X	Boomers
Brazil	87%	89%	73%	63%
Mexico	83%	87%	81%	75%
Colombia	84%	88%	76%	69%
Argentina	87%	89%	77%	58%
Chile	91%	92%	78%	72%
France	84%	68%	53%	37%
Spain	82%	78%	74%	57%
UK	77%	79%	67%	41%
Italy	77%	76%	59%	40%
Germany	83%	78%	59%	37%
Japan	89%	70%	51%	34%
US	99%	98%	96%	89%

Over half of Sweden’s population uses a paid music streaming service (IFPI)

According to IFPI, Sweden is the most engaged country in terms of paid music subscriptions with 61% of the population falling under this description.

Here are the top five nations:

• Sweden – 61%
• Mexico – 57%
• Germany – 55%
• USA – 53%
• New Zealand – 52%

Music Streaming Preferences

Ad-free listening is the top reason for paying for a music streaming platform (IFPI)

The top three reasons for choosing to use a paid music streaming service are:

1. Ad-free listening

2. Being able to choose what music to listen to

3. Access to large libraries of songs

The average listener spends over 20 hours listening to music each week (IFPI)

On average, listeners spend 20 hours and 42 minutes listening to music per week. That’s up 1 hour, and 42 minutes from 2021’s 18 hours, and 24 minutes.

Here are those figures broken down:

The majority of users search for a specific song to listen to (IFPI)

In general, users prefer to take control when it comes to listening habits.

In total, 63% search for a particular song to listen to more than once a week.

Over half (57%) search for a specific artist. And 59% primarily listen to their own playlists.

Music Streaming Players

Over 100,000 songs are added to music streaming platforms daily (Music Business Worldwide)

Incredibly, approximately 120,000 new songs are added to music streaming services each day – that’s up almost 30% from 2022’s ~93,400

Spotify claims over 30% of the music streaming market share (MIDiA)

Spotify currently leads the way in the music streaming market with a 31.7% share.

Here’s a look at the music streaming industry by market share:

The standard monthly price for a music streaming subscription is $10 (Forbes)

Here’s how some of the top music streaming services compare in terms of monthly cost:

Spotify Premium has well over 200 million subscribers (Backlinko, Spotify)

Spotify has increased its number of premium subscribers every quarter since 2015.

As of Q4 2023, there are approximately 236 million Spotify premium subscribers.

That means that with a total of 615 million monthly active users, around 38% of users choose to subscribe to Spotify Premium.

Here’s how the number of Spotify Premium subscribers has changed over time:

Quarter	Spotify Premium Subscribers
Q1 2015	18 million
Q2 2015	22 million
Q3 2015	24 million
Q4 2015	28 million
Q1 2016	30 million
Q2 2016	36 million
Q3 2016	40 million
Q4 2016	48 million
Q1 2017	52 million
Q2 2017	59 million
Q3 2017	62 million
Q4 2017	71 million
Q1 2018	75 million
Q2 2018	83 million
Q3 2018	87 million
Q4 2018	96 million
Q1 2019	100 million
Q2 2019	108 million
Q3 2019	113 million
Q4 2019	124 million
Q1 2020	130 million
Q2 2020	138 million
Q3 2020	144 million
Q4 2020	155 million
Q1 2021	158 million
Q2 2021	165 million
Q3 2021	172 million
Q4 2021	180 million
Q1 2022	182 million
Q2 2022	188 million
Q3 2022	195 million
Q4 2022	205 million
Q1 2023	210 million
Q2 2023	220 million
Q3 2023	226 million
Q4 2023	236 million

Spotify has more than double Apple Music’s subscribers (Business of Apps, Edison Trends)

Here’s a comparison between some of the biggest music streaming platforms (number of subscribers):

Most Popular Streamed Music

2023’s most popular song garnered approximately 1.6 billion streams (Nielsen)

Flowers by Miley Cyrus was the most popular song on music streaming platforms in 2023. The song accumulated around 1.6 billion streams – more than 2.5x 2021’s top song, Levitating by Dua Lipa (626.6 million).

Here’s a breakdown of the most popular songs by number of streams over time:

Year	Song	Artist	Streams
2018	God’s Plan	Drake	917.9 million
2019	Old Town Road	Lil Nas X	1 billion
2020	The Box	Roddy Ricch	920.4 million
2021	Levitating	Dua Lipa	626.6 million
2022	As It Was	Harry Styles	1.5 billion
2023	Flowers	Miley Cyrus	1.6 billion

For a second successive year, Bad Bunny’s Un Verano Sin Ti was the most listened-to album in 2023 with 4.5 billion streams.

Drake was the most-streamed artist of the decade with over 36 billion streams (chart data)

Across the 2010s, the most-streamed artists racked up 10s of billions of streams.

Here are the most successful artists of the 2010s in terms of streams:

Rank	Artist	Streams
1	Drake	36.3 billion
2	Post Malone	18.9 billion
3	Eminem	17.8 billion
4	Ariana Grande	13.9 billion
5	Future	13.9 billion
6	The Weeknd	13.6 billion
7	Taylor Swift	13.3 billion
8	XXXTentacion	13 billion
9	Ed Sheeran	12.9 billion
10	Rihanna	12.8 billion

R&B/hip-hop is the most popular music genre in the US (Nielsen)

Almost 1 in 3 (29.9%) of songs streamed in the US fall into these genres - that’s almost 2x more than second-placed rock (17%).

Here’s a full breakdown of the most popular music genres in the US:

Music Genre	Proportion of Streams
R&B/hip-hop	29.9%
Rock	17%
Pop	13.3%
Country	7.9%
Latin	6.1%
Dance/electronic (EDM)	3.5%
Christian/gospel	1.8%
World	1.7%
Children	1.2%
Classic	0.9%
Jazz	0.8%

Key Takeaways

It’s clear that music streaming continues to go from strength to strength.

And the industry is as reliant as ever on streaming services.

For more related content, have a look at Huge Streaming Trends and Video Streaming Services Stats.