"Dark horse" Amazon proving real contender against Apple Music and Spotify

Amazon is fast approaching the user levels currently achieved by the likes of Spotify and Apple Music, according to the latest data from research firm MIDiA.

After tracking weekly usage of streaming music apps on a quarterly basis since 2016, MIDiA has concluded that Amazon Music is the second most widely used streaming app, and is the third largest subscription service globally.

Dubbed the dark horse of the music streaming race, the latest research indicates that Amazon’s growth continues quarter-on-quarter, with the retailer making headway in terms of both active users and subscribers – so much so that Amazon has the largest installed base of weekly active users.

MIDiA calculates that Amazon Music has 136.3 million subscribers globally, making up 12% of the streaming market worldwide.

What is most impressive is that Amazon’s music streaming adoption is concentrated among four of its Amazon Prime markets (US, Japan, Germany and the UK) – a far cry from the global reach of Spotify and Apple Music.

According to Spotify’s Streaming State of Mind whitepaper released in December last year, streaming’s global reach will only continue to grow in the future, with 32% growth predicted in Australia by 2020.

The one card Amazon has up their sleeve is physical sales. In Japan and Germany – the world’s second and fourth largest recorded music markets respectively – physical music sales are the majority of revenues, and MIDiA predicts that Amazon will inch ahead of other competitiors as physical-to-digital transitions leapfrog downloads, skipping straight to streaming.

Amazon Prime is slated to debut in Australia soon – and are currently recruiting for a number of music-related roles – but no launch date has been confirmed.