Spotify Vs Apple Music: Who’s Winning the Music Streaming Platforms Wars? Insights and More Stats Inside

Music streaming services have changed the way we listen to music. In the dawn of the digital-only era, physical music media such as CDs or vinyl discs are now more of a collectible item than a means to enjoy your favorite tunes.

Streaming services have also made the music industry evolve, relying now on these platforms to publish and distribute their music. In fact, 89% of the entire music revenue is made through streaming services, raising a staggering $17.5 billion every year. And this is just the beginning… How will music streaming platforms  evolve through time?

In today’s article we’ll delve deep in the latest music streaming industry stats for 2025. From the size of the market and revenue to the most streamed songs, these are the most important music statistics you can’t miss.

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Music Streaming Services (Top Picks)

• Music streaming makes up 89% of the music industry revenue.
• The music streaming industry experienced a 10% growth over the last year.
• The total revenue made globally by the music streaming industry is $17.5 billion.
• Subscriptions and paid music makes up 23% of all music streaming.
• 78% of people listen to music via a streaming service.
• Over 600 million people are subscribed to a music streaming platform.

Music Streaming Industry Revenue (2025)

Streaming services play a pivotal role in the music industry. As shown by a recent study made by Forbes, music streaming accounts for 89% of the total music industry. This overall growth is due an increase of 10.4% of the global revenues from streaming during the last year.

If we look at the numbers in detail, we can see how music streaming revenue has surpassed $19 annually. This revenue has been increasing year-over-year since the mid-2000s, with an incredible growth of 34x from 2010 to 2020.

Here’s a detailed look on how much the annual music revenue has grown since 2005:

• 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.

(Source: Statista)

Music Streaming Market Share (2025)

Music streaming services have become the cornerstone of the music industry’s financial model. According to the data gathered by IFI’s Global Music Report 2024, more than half of the music listened worldwide comes from streaming. This whooping number can be divided with 23% of the global music consumption coming from paid music streaming, 22% from video streaming and 9% from ad-supported music streaming.

Here are the most popular ways to listen to music:

• 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%

Globally, music streaming platforms make up 89% of the worldwide music industry revenue. If we look in detail, in countries like the United States the usage of music streaming services is even bigger. In fact, 84% of the US music industry revenue comes in fact from music streaming platforms, while physical sales amass only 11%.

Music streaming growth is not likely to change anytime soon. Data gathered by Statista forecast that the music streaming popularity will increase in the coming years, surpassing the $30 billion in 2027.

Here’s a detailed breakdown of the results:

• 2019- $25.48 billion.
• 2020- $27.87 billion.
• 2021- $28.12 billion.
• 2022- $28.02 billion.
• 2023- $28.12 billion.
• 2024- $29.99 billion.
• 2025*- $30.14 billion.
• 2026*- $30.24 billion.
• 2027*- $30.33 billion.

(*estimated)

Music Streaming User Stats

According to the Global Music Report 2024, 67.3% of people use some form of music streaming service. That’s 2 in every 3 people worldwide. It’s important to point out how the popularity of streaming platforms has boomed in the past decade. If we look at the data gathered by IFPI and MIDiA Research, we can conclude that the number of music streaming platform subscribers has gone up by 10x. 

Here’s a detailed look on how the number of subscribers have been steadily increasing since 2015:

• Q4 2015- 68 million.
• Q4 2016- 100.4 million.
• Q4 2017- 198.6 million.
• Q1 2018- 229.5 million.
• Q1 2019- 304.9 million.
• Q4 2019- 341 million.
• Q1 2020- 400 million.
• Q4 2020- 443 million.
• Q1 2021- 487 million.
• Q2 2021- 523.9 million.
• Q2 2022- 616.2 million.

Music streaming has actually become so popular that according to market monitor Luminate, the global on-demand audio streams reached the 4 trillion mark for the first time ever in 2023. But that’s not all, the use of premium streaming services has also increased during the past years. Only in the US there’s 96.8 million premium subscribers, 51% more than there were in 2019.

Here are the latest numbers for US premium subscribers:

• 2019- 60.4 million.
• 2020- 75.5 million.
• 2021- 84 million.
• 2022- 91.6 million.
• 2023- 96.8 million.

Music Streaming Demographics

Paid music streaming platforms have become part of our daily lives, especially among younger generations. Currently, 62% of all 25 to 34-year-olds are using audio subscription services to listen to music. On the other end of the spectrum we find the eldest generation, with 1 in every 4 55 to 64-years-old having one as well.

Here are the figures gathered by IFPI’s survey:

What Generation Streams the Most Music?

Different generations make use of music streaming in a different way. If we look in detail at the American market, we find out that almost all Gen Z living in the US use a music streaming service. However, the difference isn’t very pronounced across all age brackets, with over 90% of Americans using these services disregarding their age.

In other countries, the difference between generations is more pronounced. Here’s a detailed list of the music streaming habits of different nations, divided by generations:

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

What Nation Has More Paid Music Subscriptions?

A recent report made by IFPI shows how Sweden is the nation with the most paid music subscriptions. In fact, 61% of the population has one or more paid subscriptions to music streaming platforms.

Here’s a complete breakdown of the results:

1. Sweden: 61%
2. Mexico: 57%
3. Germany: 55%
4. US: 53%
5. New Zealand: 52%

How Much Time Do People Spend Listening to Music?

According to IFPI’s Engaging With Music report, we’re listening to music in more ways than ever. On average, we spend 20.7 hours per week listening to music, 2.89% more than we did the previous year. That’s the equivalent to 13 additional 3 minute songs every week.

This level of commitment to streaming music has also grown by one hour and 42 minutes since 2021. This increase in streaming time reflects how music streaming has become part of our daily routines and lifestyles. 

Music Streaming Platforms Market Share

According to Music Business Worldwide, approximately 120.000 new songs are added to music streaming services every day. Among all available platforms, Spotify is the most popular one, claiming over 31.7% of the music streaming market share. 

Here’s a detailed look of the music streaming industry market share:

• Spotify: 31.7%
• Tencent Music: 14.4%
• Apple Music: 12.6%
• Amazon Music: 11.1%
• YouTube Music: 9.7%
• NetEase: 6.7%
• Yandex: 3.4%
• Deezer: 1.3%
• Others: 9.7%

Spotify Stats (2025)

With over 615 million monthly active users, Spotify is the most popular music streaming platform worldwide. From these, approximately 252 million are subscribed to Spotify Premium, the platform’s paid streaming service. If we compare it to previous data, we can see how Spotify’s subscriber base has increased dramatically in the last few years, more than doubling the numbers since early 2019.

Here’s a detailed look of the results:

• 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.

Spotify Vs Apple Music Stats

Spotify currently has more than double of Apple Music’s subscribers, being the most popular music streaming platform in the world. Apple Music, while being once the leader in digital music, is behind Spotify in overall users.

Here’s a detailed comparison between both music platforms regarding its number of subscribers:

• 2016- Spotify (36 million) Apple Music (20 million).
• 2017- Spotify (59 million) Apple Music (27 million).
• 2018- Spotify (83 million) Apple Music (40 million).
• 2019- Spotify (108 million) Apple Music (50 million).
• 2020- Spotify (136 million) Apple Music (72 million).
• 2021- Spotify (165 million) Apple Music (80 million).
• 2022- Spotify (188 million) Apple Music (88 million).
• 2023- Spotify (220 million) Apple Music (93 million).
• 2024- Spotify (252 million) Apple Music (101 million).

What is the Most-Streamed Song Ever?

As of December 2024 and with over 4.6 billion streams, Blinding Lights by The Weeknd is the most-streamed song in streaming platforms. In second position and with 4.1 billion streams we find Ed Sheeran’s Shape of You. Closing the top 3 we have Lewis Capaldi’s Someone You Loved with 3.73 billion streams.

Here’s the Top 10 most-streamed songs of all time:

1. Blinding Lights (The Weeknd)- 4.62 billion streams.
2. Shape of You (Ed Sheeran)- 4.16 billion streams.
3. Someone You Loved (Lewis Capaldi)- 3.73 billion streams.
4. As It Was (Harry Styles)- 3.69 billion streams.
5. Starboy (The Weeknd)- 3.65 billion streams.
6. Sunflower (Post Malone)- 3.65 billion streams.
7. One Dance (Drake)- 3.47 billion streams.
8. Sweater Weather (The Neighbourhood)- 3.45 billion streams.
9. Stay (The Kid Laroi)- 3.4 billion streams.
10. Believer (Imagine Dragons)- 3.26 billion streams).

Wrap Up

Music streaming is growing and evolving at an unprecedented rate, becoming an essential part of our everyday lives. With the music industry being reliant on these digital platforms and thousands of new songs added every day to their libraries, this fast-paced world of streaming has a bright future ahead of itself.