Music streaming services like Apple Music and Spotify lose customers en masse

Due to increased living costs, over one million customers canceled their subscriptions to music streaming services in the UK in the first quarter of 2022. Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube Music and Amazon Music Unlimited were particularly affected.

Music streaming services on the decline

Around 37 percent of the more than one million cancellations were due to the increased cost of living. That’s according to a survey by market researchers at Kantar. According to the report, increased inflation in the U.K. was to blame for music streaming services’ subscription shrinkage in the first quarter of 2022.

Inflation in the U.K. has risen nine percent and is still rising, it said. Customers are taking this into account with over one million cancellations. On average, 37 percent attribute this to wanting to save money – four percent more than in the same period last year.  The figure is even higher for Spotify. Here, around 41 percent are considering cancellation.

The survey also shows that Amazon Music Unlimited gained the most new customers in Germany in the first quarter of 2022. The Amazon service accounted for 36.4 percent of all new subscriptions. It is followed by Spotify with 26.4 percent, YouTube Music (7.9 percent), Apple Music (6.4 percent) and deezer (5.7 percent).

Streaming providers tighten prices

Qatar believes one of the other reasons for the decline in subscriptions is price increases by music streaming services. Most recently, for example, Amazon Music Unlimited had raised prices. Deezer is also at a price above the mandatory 9.99 euros a month in this country, while Tidal is still at 9.99 euros despite merging with HiFi.

According to the Kantar survey, 7.1 percent of Amazon Music Unlimited customers in the U.K., the U.S. and Germany plan to cancel their subscriptions soon. One or more price increases could significantly boost these figures again.

In the UK, the number is also falling most sharply among young adults under 35. Here, the number of subscriptions has fallen from 57 percent to 53.5 percent in one year. But even among students, most of whom receive even cheaper subscription models, the figure has fallen from 67 percent to 59 percent.

Music streaming services are a luxury that not everyone can afford or wants in times of rising inflation, after all. It will be exciting to see how the providers want to reverse this trend.