When it comes to streaming platforms, Spotify is king.
The audio, podcast and now video streaming platform leads its rivals with over 574 million monthly users worldwide under its paid and free tiers. Spotify has a 30% market share with Apple Music taking 13%. While Apple Music has 92 million paid subscriptions, Spotify has 226 million premium listeners and its churn rate is pretty low meaning users aren’t quitting the platform.
Most people subscribe to one streaming platform and Spotify is enjoying its first-mover advantage as it launched in 2008, growing successfully until it went public 10 years later. The platform has over 100 million songs with over five million podcasts ready to stream. When Apple Music launched in 2015 after acquiring Beats Music, Spotify already had 22 million paid subscribers with 68 million on its freemium tier.
Many people are more familiar with Spotify and have created curated playlists, making it hard to switch to a different streamer. The platform’s recommendation algorithm is excellent, making it easy to discover new artists and songs, especially if you’ve been subscribed to the platform for years.
The streaming service recently introduced Daylists which are regularly updated algorithmically-curated playlists that reflect what you’ve been listening to during the day with playful and wacky titles which makes them so shareable on social media and it’s this hyperpersonalization that keeps listeners stuck with Spotify – searches for “Daylist” on Spotify have risen to 20,000%.
Spotify called me out a little bit with this daylist 👀 pic.twitter.com/s0LcCQDBLB
— rae (@raewolff_) January 23, 2024
Its AI-powered DJ feature is also a favorite among listeners as it delivers a curated lineup of music alongside stunningly realistic synthetic voice commentary around the tracks. The DJ’s synthetic voice is powered by voice tech (developed by Sonantic AI), a startup purchased by Spotify last year.
Another feature is the annual Spotify Wrapped feature which is better than similar features on other streaming platforms. In late November, users can enjoy this personalized feature that displays their favourite songs, artists, podcasts, and more stats. Each year Spotify listeners share their Spotify Wrapped lists on social media which subsequently increases sign-ups from new listeners who don’t want to miss out.
All this translates to growth in both the free and paid tiers across the globe.
Spotify has been ramping up its efforts to not only keep current subscribers engaged but also to entice new listeners, in contrast to Apple and Amazon, which do not prioritize audio as their main focus.
