Music streaming driving growth of headphones market

The increasing popularity of music streaming is producing a flow-on effect for the global earphones and headphones market, which is expected to grow to US$15.8 billion by 2025.

A new study by Grand View Research states suggests that the increasing adoption of earphones or headphones during a workout is primarily expected to drive market growth over thecoming years.

“Customers use headphones at their workplaces to enjoy music and other audio content on mobile devices,” the report states.

“Further, availability of advanced features and the surge in replacement market is anticipated to fuel their demand over the next seven years.”

The report also thats that the in-ear or earphones market exceeded $4 billion in 2015, and the expansion of the over-ear headphone sector is due to rising demand for apps related to music, entertainment, sports and fitness.

“Wireless earphones & headphones are expected to be the next big thing in the industry,” the report also stated.

Asia Pacific dominated the market in 2015 with a revenue exceeding $2 billion, with the biggest rises reported in India and China – countries in which the highest rise in consumer disposable incomes were also reported.

The full report can be downloaded from the website.

In Australia, the double-digit growth of the headphones market has been heavily influenced by the take-up of wireless models, research firm GfK revealed in May 2016.

“A broadening of product range, design types (particularly sports models) and price points helped the value of these sales increase by more than 100%, representing close to a quarter of overall consumer spend on headphones in 2015,” according to GfK.

The reportwas part of an overall look at the Australian audio hardware market, which grew 11% in 2015 from the year before.

It revealed that the sectors that experienced the largest growth were Bluetooth speakers (up 58% in sales to a value of $108 million) and multi-room audio systems (up 58% in sales).

Australian earphones and headphone makers are also making their presence felt in the global market.

This month, intelligent earphones start-up Nuheara revealed it had almost $4 million of devices in the first six months of 2017. It launched last year with $1 million in crowd-funding.

Its earphones has a patented technology, invented in Australia and the United States, allows consumers to listen to music and conversation but can adjust the volume to drown out background noises.

After its earphones hit retail stores in the US and UK earlier this year, the company raised $9 million from investors.

Melbourne-based headphone maker Nura has raised a further $6 million from investors after launching with a Kickstarter campaign which set an Australian record of US$1.8 million.

Its personalised device, which it calls Nuraphon and is being manufactured in China, adjusts the consumer’s hearing through tiny measures working out which frequencies are making it to the brain.