The growing popularity of streaming music is fueling expansion in the cloud-based music services industry. New research finds the sector has doubled in size over the past five years and is on pace to continue strong growth.
A recent report from Grand View Research valued the global cloud mobile music services market at $15 billion in 2021. It projects a compound annual growth rate of 12% through 2030, which would push the market size to over $35 billion by the end of the decade.
Streaming services have accounted for much of the increased activity. Where consumers once primarily downloaded songs, the convenience and value of subscription streaming have won many users over. Services like Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music now dictate how people access and consume digital music.
The proliferation of smartphones has assisted streaming’s rise, while also driving more music consumption to occur over mobile networks. Cloud-based delivery allows people to access huge catalogs of songs from any internet-connected device. Major tech players have rushed to offer music streaming capabilities through their software and platforms.
On the provider side, the research finds stop companies in the space include Spotify, Apple, Amazon, and Google. Their streaming offerings have achieved massive scale, with hundreds of millions of users between them. A growing number of smaller, specialized services also cater to niche genres and international markets.
Geographically, North America currently dominates cloud mobile music usage but demand is growing swiftly in Asia and Europe as well. India, China, and various European nations showed two-digit percentage growth in cloud-based music streaming over the past year alone.
The report sheds light on factors influencing the market landscape. Ubiquitous smartphone access, higher-speed networks, and improving streaming quality will continue accelerating consumption. Personalization algorithms and new discovery features may also drive additional time spent using these services.
Downloading will remain important for offline listening but is forecast to decline as a percentage of overall cloud mobile music activity. Streaming poised to account for over 80% of revenue industry-wide by 2030 based on current momentum.
The surge in streaming bolsters optimism around future prospects for cloud-based music services. Rapid technological enhancement and persistent platform competition ensure this digital delivery model remains on an upward trajectory. Sustained growth in streaming subscribers and usage bodes well for another decade of expansion across the entire value chain.
