Music subscriber market shares Q4 2025: The chess board is set

Global music streaming subscribers grew 10.1% to reach 921.6 million in 2025, according to MIDiA’s just-published music subscriber market shares report. While growth slowed compared to 2024, it remained in the double digits, with the 1 billion subscriber landmark now firmly in sight. For a look at how global subscribers and DSP market share has changed from 2020–2025, access a free chart download here.

Yet the growth engines are changing. 2025 did not quite constitute a major paradigm shift on its own, but rather the chessboard being set for one.

Global South shifts gears

For the fifth straight year, Latin America, Asia Pacific, and Rest of World constituted more than 70% of subscriber growth. Asia Pacific has long been the leader of the Global South powerhouse. Yet in 2025, an ongoing slowdown in its largest market, China, saw net additions in the region fall for the fourth straight year. Meanwhile, net additions in Latin America reached a record peak, with Brazil the driving force. As Asia Pacific slows, mainly due to China’s growth slowdown, and Latin America begins picking up the slack, the latter may just become the next Global South engine room.

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YouTube’s year

YouTube Music* is currently the fourth largest DSP by market share. Yet it is quickly becoming the streaming market’s dark horse. In percentage increase terms, the platform was the fastest-growing global DSP in 2025 for the second year running – adding just a few million subscribers fewer than global leader Spotify, leapfrogging competitors in multiple countries, and overtaking Spotify to lead MENA. Key to this: While Spotify holds the Americas and Europe, YouTube Music is picking up the pace in the markets where most future subscription growth will be found.

*YouTube Music subscribers in MIDiA’s model includes standalone YouTube Music subscriptions and consumers with YouTube Premium subscriptions who access the music streaming component of the bundle.

Monetisation catches up

Yet streaming’s next chapter is not just about winning subscribers. It’s about better monetising them. 

Monetisation has often lagged subscriber growth. At the end of 2024, the music subscriber growth rate was nearly double that of major label streaming revenue – reflecting that global subscribers were growing well, but monetisation had not yet caught up. In 2025, however, the gap narrowed. While label streaming revenue growth was still lower than subscriber growth, it was by a much smaller margin, reflecting that labels and DSPs are doing a better job of driving up average revenue per user (ARPU). Chinese giant Tencent Music emerges as an interesting example. Net additions fell sharply in 2025, yet annual revenue grew 15.8%, according to its earnings report, thanks to Tencent’s focus on SVIP tiers and other ARPU growth initiatives.

A dynamic future ahead for the music streaming market

Think about it – in the history of music, it’s been very rare for a consumption format to have this level of dominance, for this long, and continue growing, without being overtaken by something else. This makes double-digit subscriber growth in 2025 all the more impressive. 

As growth continues, the streaming market is becoming more dynamic and multipolar. Not only is growth coming from more directions, but it is more strategically diverse, as players like YouTube Music and Tencent show. Roughly two decades into the streaming era, things are about to get even more interesting.

Music subscriber market shares Q4 2025 | YouTube Music picks up the pace is out now. If you are not a client but would like to learn more about how you can access the findings, email enquiries@midiaresearch.com. You can also access a FREE chart download of DSP market share and global subscribers from 2020–2025 here.