How Much Bigger Will Streaming Get? Projections For The Future

Although it's been a tough few years, streaming services seem to have endured the worst the music business can throw at them, and some have even begun dipping their toes in profitability. Here Hugh McIntyre explores where the future of streaming might be headed, and how much space the industry has to grow.

___________________

Guest post by Hugh McIntyre on ForbesIt’s no secret—nor surprise—that streaming platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora, iHeartRadio and the select few others that have managed to survive the incredibly tough business they’ve chosen to be a part of have now started to enjoy the upswing in revenue and user numbers the entire industry is currently experiencing. It took several years, but streaming has finally taken off, and a true golden age seems to have just started.The bleeding finally stopped for the music business just a year or so ago, when the entire global industry finally began making money and growing, instead of wondering when the end would arrive. In 2016, the streaming industry was collectively worth $7.6 billion, thanks to over 100 million paying customers and many millions more who opt to listen to ads instead of paying for a subscription. Subscribers are worth more to the services they listen to than their non-paying counterparts, but everybody is helping add to the overall billions brought in by the industry.

Those billions of dollars and millions of music lover are certainly all good news, but how much larger can the industry grow? A few forecasts have been released by reliable and influential music industry leaders that suggest there is still plenty of expanding to be done, and a lot more money to be made.Two years back, an American hedge fund that invests in Vivendi, the company that owns Universal Music Group, released a report that suggested where the streaming industry may lie in 2020. Universal is currently the largest player in streaming, and thus the companies attached to it have a vested interest in seeing the titan perform well in this new music economy. The report suggests that by 2020, the global annual value of paid streaming music could reach as high as almost $16.5 billion. That would raise the entire net worth of the industry considerably, but of course, that’s not the end of the story.A more recent report from MiDia Research, a U.K.-based boutique media and technology analysis company, has just shared the news that the future looks even brighter than it did just a few years ago. The company suggests that streaming revenue may pass the $20 billion mark in 2025 thanks to an incredible 336 million paid subscribers, with both user numbers and revenue almost tripling in less than a decade. Is that as far as streaming will go? Is it possible that the industry might grow beyond $20 billion in revenue? At this point, it seems like anything could happen for the business, and in a few years, there will surely be different projections which point ever higher.