UK Music Streaming Market Stagnates, Forcing Platforms to Boost Fees

• In the music streaming market in the U.K., the growth pace is slowing down with fewer new subscribers, forcing platforms such as Spotify and Amazon Music to raise prices.
• Global streaming growth soars, largely thanks to markets in the making in Africa, India, and China altering the landscape of global music.

The music streaming market in the UK, having expanded rapidly for years, has finally seen a clear surface. Now, around 32.4 million people subscribe to Spotify and Apple Music; this earmarks it as the setup with nowhere else to go than pursuing music services. This is substantially more than the 20 million video streaming subscribers, but, surprisingly, the rate of growth in users has decreased.

For the streaming service providers, though, only 1.25 million new customers came on board in 2024, marking a better growth of only 4% than the growth of 9% in 2020. And fearing the absence of sufficient new subscribers in the future, the giants will follow through on money-charging strategies.

Price Increases by Tech Monopolies

Recessionary trends have been noticed in subscriber growth, and so OTT charging avenues are being explored for diversion. Users can expect higher charges for their monthly fees.

What has already happened can be seen in Spotify’s periodic increase in subscription amounts in eight quarters. £9.99 was also managed in the stratosphere of subscription pricing for five years. The cover price finally increased in mid-2024 to £10.99. Worse still, this offer may be upgraded again to £11.99 in May 2025. The rumour is about a release this year on a Spotify streaming service tier with high fidelity, which could cost an extra £5 per month.

Amazon charges £7.99 for Amazon Music Unlimited for the UK. In January, it took the charge from £9.99 to £11.99, officially marking the start of what experts call a seemingly new regime of constant increases. According to Mark Mulligan, co-founder and managing director of MIDiA Research, ‘We expect this trend to continue to grow.’ “If you’re not growing users, what do you do? You get them to pay more.”

Ban the Thought of Cheap Membership

The idea of attracting more subscribers with lower entry-level plans was discussed, but it didn’t meet the favour of the industry honchos. The idea stands sadly cleared away. Dennis Kooker, President of Global Digital Business, Sony Music, completely rejected the idea. Reasonable pricing levels did not work out in the past, and now the stress is on the premium materials to make user payments bring revenue.

It is high time for people who would not prefer to pay: they have YouTube to go for ad-supported services, but there are better advantages of paid subscriptions, permitting users to listen to whatever they like and an unlimited number of audio files.

The Global Streaming Continues to Grow

While the UK market is stagnating, music streaming is still showing global growth. MIDiA’s report shows that the total number of global subscribers increased by 11.6% (YoY), largely also driven by emerging markets in Africa, India, and China.

China is currently the largest streaming market in the world, with about 190 million subscribers. Sub-Saharan Africa was recorded to be the fastest-growing region, with music revenues crossing the $100 million mark (£770,000) for the first time in its history. 

Afrobeats and Amapiano are genres that are becoming massively popular, with Burna Boy reportedly a stadium headliner in the UK as we write. South Korea is also making waves, contributing to 45% of physical album records purchased globally last year. Latin America remains at the top, with megastars like Bad Bunny and Karol G.

The UK’s Waning Musical Influence

The balance is slanting towards the UK from the new markets. It hadn’t happened in 20 years that a British singer failed to make it into the top ten in worldwide sales of either singles or albums in the last year.

According to Victoria Oakley, head of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), this is due to a more democratic music industry. Global audiences are now within reach of artists worldwide because of streaming platforms, thus levelling the playing field.

The names still emerging from the UK, Myles Smith and Lola Young, while less fast success, as observed by Oakley. “Such is the approach now,” she says. “It takes five, six or maybe seven years to get your name out there and make it to the top of the charts.”

The Future of Music Streaming 

As UK subscribers anticipate gradual fee increments in the coming years, the implication may conceivably be that to expand user bases, companies might rather consider encouraging subscriptions over setting higher prices. 

Meanwhile, the curtain of credibility is being lifted from the global soundscape. At the cost of local charts, those in the UK can readily look forward to music trends heavily influenced by foreign artists as streaming fires up everywhere in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The golden era is quickly receding into the past as far as cheap streaming is concerned, where globalisation and a world of exotic music themes are just beginning at the crossroads of ultimate opulence.