Music Streaming Services Stats (2026)

Music streaming has completely changed the music industry.

In fact, in 2026, 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
• Music streaming’s global revenue currently sits at $20.4 billion
• The US added 6.3 million new paid music streaming subscribers in the last year
• Paid music streaming makes up 23% of all music streaming
• Over 800 million people worldwide subscribe to a paid music streaming platform
• The average American listens to more than 27 hours of audio per week
• Spotify is the leading music streaming service, with over 280 million paid subscribers

Music Streaming Industry

Music streaming accounts for 84% of total music industry revenue (RIAA)

Data published in September last year shows that the music industry is heavily reliant on streaming.

There were 6.3 million new paid subscribers to music streaming services in the US last year (Music Business Worldwide)

In the year to September 2025, paid services like Spotify Premium added 6.3 million net users, growing to a total of 105.3 million US users. 

A year previously, paid music streaming services added just 2.5 million net users.

Music streaming revenue has surpassed $20 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 2024, the most recent available data at time of publication, music streaming revenue stood at approximately $20.4 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
2024	$20.4 billion

The Recording Industry Association of America uses slightly different data, and so its figures do not directly align with the IFPI figures listed above. But in percentage terms, the RFPI recorded a 2.3% YoY increase in total streaming revenue as of H1 2025.

Music Streaming Market Share

Over half of US music revenue comes from paid subscription services (RIAA)

Paid music streaming makes up 57.1% of all music industry revenue. Just 3% comes from digital downloads. 

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

Medium	Percentage of industry revenue
Paid streaming	57.1%
Ad-supported streaming	26.8%
Physical	10%
Digital download	3%
TV and film rights (synch)	3%

Music streaming subscription revenue has grown by 9.5% in the last year (IFPI)

The Global Music Report 2025 notes that worldwide revenue from music streaming subscription services swelled by almost 10% in the last 12 months.

Radio still has a higher US listening share than streaming in the ad-supported audio vertical (Edison Research)

As of October 2025, radio made up 62% of listening time for ad-supported audio. Podcasts made up a further 20%, with 15% coming from ad-supported streaming (e.g. the Spotify Free plan). 

Ad supported streaming has a higher share among listeners aged 18-34 (24%), but is still outstripped by radio (43%) and podcasts (31%). 

By some calculations, 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.

(It's worth noting that the raw figures listed by Statista for recent years are higher than those reported by the RIAA or IFPI.)

Here’s a look at the digital music market forecast, per Statista's numbers:

Year	Music Streaming ($ billions)	Digital Music ($ billions)	Music Downloads ($ billions)
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 more than 12x since 2015 (IFPI, MIDiA Research, Statista)

Since Q4 2015, the number of music streaming subscribers has risen from 68 million to 818 million in Q4 2024 – an increase of over 12x.

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%
Q1 2020	400 million	+31.2%
Q1 2021	487 million	+21.75%
Q2 2022	616.2 million	+26.5%
Q3 2023	713 million	+15.7%
Q4 2024	818 million	+14.7%

The UK alone streamed 210 billion audio music tracks in 2025 (Music Business Worldwide)

2025 marked the first time that the UK market crossed 200 billion annual music streams. It marked 5.5% YoY growth.

The most recent full-year global numbers are not available, but earlier figures show that the global total crossed 4.1 trillion songs in 2023.

In total, over 100 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 Demographics

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, for the most recent years these exact figures were provided:

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

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%

The USA is the leading consumer of music streaming (IFPI)

According to IFPI, the US is the leading market for music streaming. But the Middle East and North Africa is the fastest growing region, with revenues swelling at 22.8% YoY.

Sub-Saharan Africa (22.6%) and Latin America (22.5%) are also fast-growing markets. And Mexico recently entered the overall top 10, overtaking Australia.

Here are the top 10 nations for music streaming:

• USA
• Japan
• UK
• Germany
• China
• France
• South Korea
• Canada
• Brazil
• Mexico

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 US listener consumes over 27 hours of audio per week (Nielsen)

As of Q3 2025, Americans listen to an average of 3 hours and 53 minutes of audio per day. That includes streaming music services, radio, and podcasts.

That equates to 27.18 hours of audio per week.

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 150,000 songs are added to music streaming platforms daily (Forbes)

Deezer alone adds around 150,000 tracks per day. A third of those are purely AI-generated.

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 has risen above $11 (CNET)

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

Spotify Premium has 281 million subscribers (Backlinko, Spotify)

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

As of Q3 2025, there are approximately 281 million Spotify premium subscribers.

That means that with a total of 713 million monthly active users, around 39.4% 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
Q1 2024	239 million
Q2 2024	246 million
Q3 2024	252 million
Q4 2024	263 million
Q1 2025	268 million
Q2 2025	278 million
Q3 2025	281 million

Spotify has more than double Apple Music’s paid subscribers (various public sources)

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

Most Popular Streamed Music

2025’s most popular song garnered approximately 1.5 billion streams on Spotify (Kworb)

Ordinary by Alex Warren was the most popular song on Spotify in 2025. The song accumulated around 1.5 billion streams, which was actually slightly lower than the top hits of the last 3 years.

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
2024	Die With a Smile	Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars	1.7 billion
2025	Ordinary	Alex Warren	1.48 billion

Drake was the most-streamed artist of the 2010s 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%

Only 0.5% of all legitimate streams go to purely AI-generated tracks (Forbes)

In 2026, AI's increasingly impressive capabilities have made their way to the world of music. But the appeal of purely AI-generated tracks remains low.

On Deezer, only 0.5% of legitimate streams go to AI songs. These tracks also account for 70% of the streams detected as fraudulent.

At current rates, pure AI tracks submitted to music streaming services will outnumber human-created tracks by the middle of 2026 (Forbes)

All of the major music streaming services have announced steps to try and combat fraudulent or "spammy" AI-created tracks designed to artificially generate royalties.

Key Takeaways

It’s clear that music streaming continues to go from strength to strength, even if the era of AI is bringing new challenges in 2026.

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.