Photo Credit: Wesley Tingey
Apple Music, Spotify, and Amazon lose over a million music subscribers in the UK. Research finds a decline in the number of young people with music streaming subscriptions throughout the country.
A new report from Kantar Research claims that more than a million UK subscribers have cancelled their music streaming services in Q1 2022. The report also finds a notable decline in the number of younger individuals with music streaming subscriptions across the country. Unsurprisingly, many cite a need to save money as the driving force behind their cancellation.
“With inflation rising to 9% in the United Kingdom and further rises in the cost of living expected, the rising cancellation rates of music subscriptions is evidence that British households are starting to prioritize the spending of their disposable income,” Kantar’s report says.
“Over 1 million subscriptions were cancelled in the last quarter, which has also seen the highest level of consumers citing they want to save money as the reason they want to cancel their subscription, at 37%.”
Kantar notes that in the same period in 2021, 33% of people cancelling their subscriptions cited a need to save money as the reason. The company says that in the UK, subscriptions are dropping quickest among younger consumers. “The percentage of under 35 having access to a music subscription having dropped from 57.0% to 53.5% year on year.” That should come as no small surprise as the entire world is currently experience record inflation rates.
In addition to saving money, Kantar’s research finds that younger subscribers are cancelling because of limited music selection, technical difficulties, and too many ads. The study covers all streaming services available in the UK but specifies Apple Music, Spotify, and Amazon Music, the country’s leading music streaming platforms. The report finds that across all services, the number of new subscribers to music platforms in Q1 2022 “dropped to below 1% of the (UK) population.”