- The streaming market is not experiencing the crisis
- Apple Music could see its place as world number two snatched by YouTube Music or Tencent Music
- Amazon Music is not far away
With 188 million subscribers according to a study, Spotify remains the undisputed leader in the music streaming market today. But while the gap between the platform and Apple Music (88M) was relatively thin in 2017, it seems to be widening drastically. So much so that Cupertino could perhaps soon cede second place on the podium to one of its major international competitors:YouTube Music(80M). Tencent (80.2 M), which offers an alternative mainly dedicated to China, would be neck and neck with Mountain View here.
Of course, as these are figures based on a survey, they should be considered with some caution. We nevertheless know that Apple can easily be considered as a realpioneer in the field with its iTunes Store. Has the firm had its day, to the point of leaving its place to younger players? Nothing is less certain.
A cheaper offer than almost all others
Indeed, although the basic Apple Music package is currently billed at 10.99 euros per month, up approximately 10% with inflation, the service also offers a Voice offer at only4.99 euros per monthrecently. This certainly does not give access to the appApple Music Classicaland is not compatible with theAudio spatialnor with the Lossless format, but the hundred million titles are indeed there as for the other subscriptions.
For comparison, Spotify starts from 9.99 euros per month for ad-free access. A subscription of 4.99 euros per month is also offered, but this is reserved only for students who are registered in certain universities. And at YouTube Music, the base price is set today at 9.99 euros per month.
No crisis for music?
Still according to the same figures, the music streaming sector would have generated in 2022 no less than$23.27 billion, the equivalent of approximately 21.12 billion euros. A figure that has been growing constantly since 2017, with almost 25% increase during the pandemic period.
This success could also be explained by the proliferation of bundled offers, notably with the breakthrough of key players such as Amazon which offers its Music streaming service (74M) in a subscription also including free delivery of products with Prime and films and series from Prime Video.Apple Oneis also positioned in this segment, with the iCloud+ (50 GB), Apple TV+, Apple Music and Apple Arcade bundle for 16.95 euros per month.
