Celebrity podcasts fuelling rise of music streaming subscriptions in Australia

Photo: Mohammad Metri on Unsplash

The total number of audio streaming subscriptions in Australia reached 13.5 million at the end of June 2021—up 13% from a year ago.

According to technology analyst firm Telsyte about a quarter signed on to listen to “celebrity” podcasts and broadcasts. One in four (27%) had chosen their music subscription based on “a good variety of celebrity and popular podcasters”.

Data from the Telsyte Australian Subscription Entertainment Study 2021 put the top three streaming music service providers in Australia as Spotify, Google (including YouTube Music and YouTube Premium) and Apple Music.

More than half are now paid subscriptions, compared to 42% at the end of June 2019.

The 13% year-on-year growth of music subscriptions is equalled by that of games-related subscriptions.

It’s an interestingly figure: after all, music streaming has been enthusiastically taking lessons about monetising from gaming, particularly through tickets, fan contributions, virtual and real merchandise, sponsorship and ad revenue.

The attraction in adopting its business model is that in 2020, games revenue was almost four times the total size of the global music industry, and that 68% of its £138 billion (AU$259.8 billion) value was through in-game monetisation.

Telsyte found Australians took up a total of 7 million games-related subscriptions at the end of June 2021 – from 6.2 million a year ago, and forecast to hit 16 million by June 2025.

Casual streaming gamers spend around $360 per annum (about $30 per month), with hardcore gamers (those playing three or more hours a day) spending far more.

Telsyte forecasted the music industry’s attraction will grow even more in Australia.

“In keeping with more time spent at home, video gaming subscriptions are set to grow three times faster than SVOD [streaming video on demand] and streaming music during the next four years,” the company reported.

For the time being, though, the main growth is in the SVOD sector, which this year had a 16% growth, from 16.4 million in June 2020 to 19.1 million three months ago.

The study found Netflix (6.0 million) remained the top SVOD service, followed by Amazon Prime Video (2.9 million), Disney+ (2.6 million), Stan (2.4 million) and Kayo Sports (1.1 million).

Most (78%) Australian households had at least one entertainment subscription at the end of June 2021, an increase from 65% three years earlier.

Subscribing households now average of 4.3 entertainment services (up from 2.7 in June 2018), largely driven by SVOD subscriptions.

Pandemic-weary Aussies are switching on entertainment subscriptions at a rapid pace.

The figure was 37 million in June 2020, moving to 42 million at the end of June 2021, and set to exceed 60 million by 2025.