The big names in music continue to battle each other with summer hits, while streaming platforms do more or less the same to grab new users. Thanks to some data revealed by David Israelitethe president of the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA), we can get an idea of the numbers of streaming platforms in the United States, with colossi come Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music Amazon Music e Tidal that dominate the sector.
What are the most used music streaming platforms?
The picture that emerges from Israelite’s data is actually a confirmation of what we already knew, at least as far as the podium is concerned. Indeed, the undisputed leader reconfirms himself Spotify with 44.4 million subscribers as of February 2023, followed by Apple Music with 32.6 million e Amazon Music with 29.3 million. These three services vie for the largest share of the US market, which is also the most important globally for music streaming.
Although the scenario is almost unchanged compared to last year, the data is important because they finally provide us with the numbers of Apple Music, which has not revealed data on its subscribers since 2019. The Big Apple likes mystery.
Amazon Music, for its part, had declared three years ago that it had 55 million subscribers worldwide, but today the number has probably grown considerably. In fact, the e-commerce giant offers various plans and benefits for its Prime customers and for owners of Echo smart speakers.
E YouTube Music e Tidal?
The other two services that round out the top five are YouTube Music with 8.5 million subscribers e Pandora with 2.4 million. These are much lower numbers than the first three, showing how these services struggle to compete with the more established and attractive offerings of Spotify, Apple and Amazon.
A resounding absence is that of TIDAL, the high-definition music streaming service launched by rapper Jay-Z and championed by other popular artists. TIDAL, which in our article on the best music streaming services we had placed among the recommendations, does not seem to be able to enter the top five of the most popular services in the US, despite the above-average audio quality and the focus on the distribution of royalties.
We would like to reiterate that the data shared by Israelite relate only to the US market, which however should reflect global habits quite faithfully.