New Delhi, July 8 Led by Swedish music streaming service, the global online music streaming subscriptions increased 35 per cent (year-on-year) in the first quarter this year to hit 394 million subscriptions globally, a new report said on Wednesday.
Spotify led the charts with a market share of 30 per cent in revenue terms and 33 per cent in the terms of paid subscriptions, according to Counterpoint Research.
Apple Music followed with 25 per cent revenue share and 21 per cent subscription share and Amazon Music subscriptions grew a strong 104 per cent (YoY) to capture the third spot.
However, in terms of total monthly active users (MAUs), Tencent Music (with the help of QQ Music, Kugou and Kuwo) emerged the winner with a strong hold in China, accounting for 657 million MAUs.
"The growth in paid subscriptions (35 per cent YoY) was once again more than the 20 per cent YoY growth in monthly active users (MAUs). This indicates that people from the free MAU universe are upgrading to become premium subscribers for an improved experience," said Research Analyst Abhilash Kumar.
Spotify's growth was driven by strong performances in the Asia Pacific and Latin America.
In India, which Spotify entered recently, it has made a big price cut on its yearly plan Rs 1,189 to Rs 699.
It came up with a new service Spotify Kids, besides podcasts and playlists for pets.
"Apple Music expanded to 52 new countries and offered six months of free subscriptions there. Also, it is adding new features continuously on its platform, like with the iOS 13.4.5 release, users can now share their music on Instagram and Facebook stories, thus increasing social media engagements," explained Kumar.
The reason for Amazon Music's stupendous growth is that its HD arm Amazon Music HD offered 90 days of "free lossless music streaming in Q1 2020".
The race for subscriptions is heating up with every passing quarter.
While the COVID-19 outbreak proved to be negative for most of the industries, it improved the overall scenario for the music streaming segment, said the report.
( With inputs from IANS )