Reports: SoundCloud

In this report, we present highlights of content trends from MIDiA’s Quarterly Brand Tracker, a survey fielded in the US, UK, Canada and Australia. This report explores how consumer behaviour evolved between Q4 2016 and Q2 2017 across music, video, games and social.

2016 was the year that streaming turned the recorded music business into a good news story, with revenue growth so strong that it drove nearly a billion dollars of total growth. Leading streaming services spent the year competing with ever more impressive metrics while playlisting and streaming exclusives became cornerstones of the wider music mark...

2015 was the year in which streaming music came of age but 2016 was the year when it hit the long anticipated milestone of 100 million subscribers, transforming the global recorded music business. 2016 was defined by accelerated subscriber growth, steady global expansion, new competition and strengthening streaming brand identities.

SoundCloud is in many respects the odd one out in the audio streaming landscape. While the market is dominated by major label orientated subscription services like Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer and Napster, SoundCloud has plotted a different path – one centred around independent content, creator uploads and free access.

2014 was undoubtedly streaming’s biggest year yet, growing by 39% and accounting for nearly a third of all digital revenues. But the market is a long distance yet from being in a position where it can be considered established. While free streaming, YouTube in particular, is booming, subscriptions remain confined to niche audiences.

The global digital music industry may only be growing steadily (5% in 2013) but beneath the headline number is a richly varied picture of different services, diverse regional growth rates and competing business models. To better understand this marketplace, MIDiA Research conducted a Global Music Services Tracker.