According to Midia, the music streaming market is continuing to grow, and increased by 26.4 percent in 2021. There’s high growth potential among the Gen Z. Spotify is the one dominating the market right now, with 31% of market share, with Apple Music and YouTube Music growing fast. The top 5 major music streaming services are Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Tencent Music, and YouTube Music. Their brand positioning target different audience segments from Gen X to Gen Z.
In terms of Spotify, there is a difference between the user with the free account and a premium account, since most streaming services don't offer free-tiers. Spotify places itself as an “audio company”, they aren't just a music streaming service but they also offer podcasts, and soon Audiobook.
Apple Music is a streaming service much more focused on music and artists but also giving the user interesting related content such as interviews and radio shows hosted by artists.
The consumption of music is done in the majority through streaming services, but the consumption of physical copies has been growing. Artists like Adele and Taylor Swift move a lot of people that end up buying the physical copies of their albums, instead of just listening to them on streaming. Since Gen Z has been responsible for the growth of Vinyl sales. The UGC (User generated content) is also the trend. NetEase Music and SoundCloud are highly based on user uploaded music, while users of other platform create playlists to share with others, like Apple Music “friend mix”.