Apple Music has a fifth of the streaming music market in the UK

A new report by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) says that Apple Music has a fifth of the streaming music market in the UK. That puts it in third place behind Spotify (60%) and Amazon (30%).

The CMA — not to be confused with the U.S.-based County Music Association (also CMA) is a non-ministerial government department responsible for strengthening business competition and preventing and reducing anti-competitive activities. The data in its new report comes from the agency’s own analysis of data from the music streaming services themselves. 

Here are some highlights from the UK agency’s report: 

° In 2021 in the UK there were 39 million monthly active users of music streaming services and there were over 138 billion streams.

° More than 80% of music is listened to via music streaming services. 

° As a result of the introduction of music streaming services, inflation-adjusted recorded music revenues have increased from £0.8 billion in 2015 to £1.1 billion in 2021, although these revenues remain below their pre-piracy peak.

° The average UK artist earned £2,000 from streaming from majors in 2021 with an average royalty rate of around 26%.

° More creators than ever before are releasing music – with the number of artists who stream their music increasing from around 200,000 in 2014 to 400,000 in 2020 – and today they have more choice over how they distribute it. 

° Analysis published by the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) shows that the number of artists reaching one million UK streams per month has increased but remains low at around 1,700 (approximately 1 of every 250 (0.4%) artists who were streamed).