There’s a Whole Lotta Love for Music Streaming. Let’s See If My System Loves It Too.
Music streaming has come a long way since illegal file sharing applications like Napster and LimeWire. Apple introduced its iTunes store and the iPod in 2001, and streaming services like Pandora, Spotify, and YouTube all launched shortly after in the mid-to-late 2000s. Despite not being well-received by the music industry, streaming became the dominant revenue generator for music labels in the mid-2010s. And according to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), music streaming now makes up an incredible 84% of the U.S. music industry revenue – a whopping $43.4 billion in 2022 alone. Global music subscribers surged 26.4% during the pandemic to 523.9 million. The leading platform with the largest number of paid subscribers is Spotify (SPOT), which just reported first-quarter earnings on Tuesday and shot higher as a result.
