The recorded music business is bullish on growing the costs of premium streaming companies in key markets.
Common Music Group shareholder Invoice Ackman has been significantly vocal on this matter, repeatedly noting his perception that “common value will increase will grow to be the norm within the audio streaming business as they’re within the video streaming business”.
Different business leaders to voice their perception that there’s room for persevering with value rises embody UMG boss, Sir Lucian Grainge, Sony Music Group‘s Rob Stringer, and Warner Music Group‘s Robert Kyncl. (Kyncl, by means of instance, has stated: “We consider the market will bear additional value will increase sooner or later, and we’re anticipating that they’ll arrive on a extra common cadence than prior to now.”)
In most key music business territories, this precise sample is taking part in out.
For instance, regardless of value rises at Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, and Amazon Music final 12 months, the United States noticed its quantity of particular person music streaming subscriptions improve by over 5 million YoY (in accordance with RIAA information, see beneath).
Spotify has simply elevated the worth of its flagship particular person Premium tier within the US for the second time in 12 months; having hiked its month-to-month value from $9.99 to $10.99 in July 2023, SPOT just lately moved this value up once more, from $10.99 per 30 days to $11.99 per 30 days.
(For this text, we’ll avoid discussing how a lot of the spoils from this new pricing construction will go to music vs. audiobooks!)
Nevertheless, there’s one other historically vital music market the place a special sample seems to have begun turning into obvious: Sweden.
Each two years, a bunch of three assortment societies in Scandinavia – KODA (Denmark), TEOSTO (Finland), and TONO (Norway), collectively often known as Polaris Nordic – conduct a survey of music listeners within the Nordics, together with YouGov.
The most recent of those stories has simply been printed. It displays information pooled from interviews with 4,000 separate people throughout the Nordic area in Could 2024.
The report consists of some constructive stats for the music enterprise rightsholders, together with the truth that 55% of individuals within the Nordics now pay for a music subscription—up from 53% in 2022 and 49% in 2020.
One specific statistic, nonetheless, could give the broader music business some pause for thought.
Based on the YouGov survey, 56% of individuals in Sweden now pay for a premium subscription – both straight or through a bundle.
But that determine was down vs. the 59% of respondents in Sweden who stated they paid for a premium music subscription in 2022.
Based on the YouGov survey, in the identical timeframe, the variety of individuals completely listening to music through free tiers of streaming companies (or free trials) shot up in Sweden, from 34% in 2022 to 39% in 2024.
So what’s happening?
Sweden, the birthplace of Spotify, has lengthy confirmed itself to be an accelerated market when it comes to the maturity of music streaming.
Throughout the speedy world rise of music streaming/subscriptions from 2015-2020, Sweden typically set the tempo, with increased ranges of market penetration than most different territories on the earth.
Ten years in the past in 2014, for instance – simply three years after Spotify launched within the United States – streaming was already claiming over 79% of the whole music market in Sweden.
Sweden’s early-adopter streaming standing within the trendy music business has additionally been mirrored in pricing within the territory.
In 2021, years earlier than it did the identical within the US, Spotify raised its month-to-month particular person Premium value in Sweden by 10%, up from 99 SEK (round USD $9.99) to 109 SEK (round $10.99).
Right now, Spotify’s pricing in its homeland has advanced once more.
Swedish clients who take up an particular person Premium subscription are provided a month’s free trial to ad-free Spotify. After this, they have to pay 119 SEK (round USD $11.21) per 30 days.
Based on the brand new Polaris Nordic/YouGov ballot, this pricing construction could take a look at the willingness of some Swedish shoppers to spend on music.
Inside the YouGov survey, Nordic shoppers who don’t presently subscribe to music streaming companies had been requested in the event that they agreed with a sequence of statements concerning why they’re refusing to place their palms into their pockets.
Two of these statements (see beneath) had been significantly telling:
- “[The paid service] is simply too costly” noticed 36% of respondents in Sweden agree, up from 33% in 2022;
- “There are lots of choices for streaming music without spending a dime, so I don’t see why I ought to pay” noticed 27% of respondents in Sweden agree, up from 24% in 2022 (see beneath).
To be clear, the decline in Swedish shoppers who say they subscribe to a paid music service in 2024 vs. 2022 could or could not be associated to the financial sensitivity of those shoppers in the case of streaming pricing.
Additionally price mentioning: Based on IFPI statistics, Sweden truly noticed a YoY improve of over 6% when it comes to recorded music business subscription streaming revenues in 2023.
And keep in mind: the YouGov ballot talked about right here merely displays the solutions of a 4,000-strong pattern of individuals throughout the Nordics. Sweden alone homes a inhabitants of greater than 10 million individuals.
There additionally nonetheless seems to be room for development RE: music subscriptions in Scandinavia. Whereas 55% of the 4,000 respondents stated they presently pay for a music streaming subscription, that was considerably decrease than the proportion who pay for TV and film streaming, which presently stands at 83% (up from 81% in 2022).
Even so, these statistics remind us that whereas repeated streaming subscription value rises in key markets look like a wise technique for growth-chasing music rightsholders, the conduct of shoppers is rarely assured.
You may learn the brand new full Polaris Nordic/YouGov report in full by right here.Music Enterprise Worldwide
