The U.S. crossed the 100 million paid subscriber mark for music streaming services for the first time ever last year, as per a new report by the Record Industry Association of America (RIAA).
The subscriber number was up from 96.8 million in 2023, with year-on-year growth of roughly 3%. RIAA’s report said that these numbers discount limited tier services — which have device access restrictions and catalog availability limits — and count multi-user subscriptions (such as family plans) as one.
According to data from Digital Music News, Spotify dominates the U.S. market with a 36% market share, followed by Apple Music with 30.7%. Spotify has 55 million paid subscribers in the country, according to a report from Bloomberg published in January — unlike the RIAA metrics, Spotify likely breaks down multi-user subscriptions.
Revenue from streaming represented a massive chunk of total music revenue — 84% in 2024. The $14.9 billion revenue from streaming came from paid subscriptions, ad-supported services, digital and customized radio, social media platforms, and digital fitness apps. The next big driver in music revenue was physical copies of sales, representing 11% of total revenue.
The report noted that revenues from paid subscriptions jumped 5% year-on-year at $11.7 billion, which counts for 79% of overall streaming revenues.
In the last few years, all services, including Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube, have hiked the prices of their subscriptions. That also could be a factor contributing to rising revenue through paid subscriptions.
