Australia’s streaming music subscriptions reach 12.2m

The COVID-19 pandemic saw Australian streaming music subscriptions jump to 12.2 million by the end of June 2020, and numbers could hit 16.2 million by mid-2023.

According to tech research company Telsyte, music remains the second biggest sector for subs, behind streaming video on demand (SVOD) which has hit the 16.3 million mark.

Numbers in The Telsyte Australian Entertainment Subscriptions Study 2020 indicate music streaming may be maturing, as total number of subs only increased 2% YoY.

Over half are now paid subscriptions, compared to 42% last year.

The top three streaming music service providers in Australia remain Spotify, Google (including YouTube Music, YouTube Premium and Google Play Music) and Apple.

As growth slows, providers are increasingly switching to podcasts.

More than 1-in-4 Australians aged 16 and over listened to podcasts between January and June 2020, with comedy, health and news and politics the major drawers.

Combined music, SVOD and games saw Australians add 5.6 million new subscriptions to end of June, up 18% from a year ago.

The total number of subscriptions is now almost 37 million and tipped to hit 58 million by 2024. 

The most positive impact was for SVOD, whose leap from 12.2 million in June 2019 to 16.3 million to end of June 2020 marked a 32% jump.

As high as 52% of users regard it as “essential” during the pandemic.

Telsyte research shows Netflix (5.4 million) and Stan (2.1 million) remained the top two SVOD service providers at the end of June 2020.

Amazon Prime Video and Disney+ (launched in November 2019) both emerged strongly with 1.7 and 1.1 million subscriptions, respectively.

Video games are also booming with 5.8 million subs, and which could reach 17 million by mid-2024.

About half of Australian households have a gaming console and 5 million people regularly purchase games (downloads and physical).

Gamers are spending between 25% and 35% more time on games during the pandemic.

Telsyte estimates total sports SVOD category grew 11% YoY to 4.9 million subscriptions,

“Australians continue to show a strong willingness to subscribe to multiple services,” Telsyte managing director, Foad Fadaghi says.

The number of Australian households subscribing to more than one SVOD service rose in the last 12 months from 41% to 47%.