In Q4 2015 Amazon Music’s subscriber base was just 18% of Spotify’s. Amazon’s success is in some respects even more impressive.

Since Q4 2016, Spotify has averaged 34.8% global music subscriber market share, meaning that despite fierce competition it has managed to stay ahead of the pack, actually increasing share slightly from 34.2% to 35.3%. Indeed, underneath this headline figure Amazon is the number two player in some of the world’s biggest music markets. What’s more, unlike Apple and Spotify, Amazon’s wider business is not a top-tier player in dozens of countries, so Amazon Music’s geographic footprint is uneven – making its global figure even more impressive. From a bit-part player in 20, Amazon Music is now firmly established in streaming’s leading pack and looks set to overtake Apple Music in 2020. Make no mistake, this is a really strong performance.

This implies a subscriber growth of 16 million on 2018. Based on our Q2 2019 numbers for Amazon and the fact that Amazon’s free tier was only rolled out in late 2019 across a few markets, MIDiA estimates Amazon Music’s actual subscriber number to be 50 million. Amazon Music closed 2019 with 55 million ‘customers’ across free and paid. Neatly ahead of Spotify’s Q4 earnings, Amazon has taken the rare step of announcing subscriber metrics for Amazon Music (inclusive of Prime Music and Music Unlimited).

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