Choosing a music streaming app is becoming a nice problem to have (but mostly for subscribers)
Giles Tongue
Unpacking what really drives growth | Turning curiosity into actionable strategies | Learning together from £2M–£100M scaling wins, with new discoveries in marketing, storytelling, AI, subscriptions and bundling
The growth of the multi-service subscriptions are causing me to scratch my head a bit this week.
I’m referring to subscriptions that include many apps that could otherwise be stand alone, all from one company, paid for in one, discounted, price.
Today, I’m thinking mostly about music streaming as I have an important, and potentially lucrative decision to make… lucrative, in the sense of money saving and cost efficiency.
I’m currently a subscriber of Spotify, for which I pay family plan of £16.99 a month or £203.88 a year.
However, last week, I became a YouTube Premium subscriber, mostly to help my kids avoid adverts while streaming on YouTube. For this, I’m paying a family plan for £19.99 after my first month free trial concludes.
Within this I get YouTube Music included.
I’ve been spending some time researching YouTube Music, it has a very similar look and feel to Spotify, and functionality is broadly the same. I'm a little concerned about podcasts, so need to dig in there a bit more.
Since I’m getting it included in Youtube Premium, I think it might be time to cancel Spotify. Sorry.
Music streaming - our third most popular streaming service
In our recent survey at Bango , music apps were shown to be the third most popular type of subscription service, behind Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD) and Retail (eg. Amazon Prime, Walmart+).
You can check out this research for free here (Bango Subscriptions Assemble).
In fact for Gen Z, music is the number most subscribed to service.
Multi service apps - Amazon
Let’s talk about Amazon Prime for moment. I also have an Amazon Prime subscription for £95 a year, which includes Amazon Music (and a whole lot more).
Amazon Prime subscription includes:
So why don’t I use Amazon Music since it’s already included - well last time I tried, it didn’t have some of the music I wanted and the UI wasn’t quite there for me. However, I’ll give it another before I make the decision.
Multi service apps - Apple
Which brings us to Apple. I currently take Apple Arcade (Gaming) for £6.99 a month. I could pay additionally for the following individually, or buy Apple One for the family at £24.95, which includes:
Right now, I have no need for any of the other services, so really I would be paying more for a bunch of services I don’t really want, to take Apple Music or I can buy it on its own for £16.99 (family plan). From a cost saving point of view, this makes no sense, sorry Apple.
Decisions decisions
So I’ll have another look at Amazon Music, I don’t think I’ll bother with Apple Music as it adds cost rather than removes.
Most likely at this point, is I’ll cancel Spotify and go with YouTube Music, and put £203.88 back in my pocket, which softens the blow of the £239 I’m now sending to Alphabet!
Implications of Multi-Service Apps on single service apps
Good for subscribers, perhaps not so much for some companies. This story in microcosm highlights a bit of a concern for single service apps, like Spotify.
Whereas once competition came from other similar music streaming services like Deezer, Tidal, QoBuz… now they are competing with tech giants (or media death stars as media expert Evan Shapīro calls them) like Apple , Alphabet Inc. (YouTube/Google) and Amazon . Fun times.
Bundling - a potential solution
Its becoming increasingly simple to bundle, thanks to products like the Digital Vending Machine, and a good example of content providers bundling together like SiriusXM and Fox Nation announced just this week (read more at TheDesk here), or previously Netflix with HBO Max, provide a template example of how companies, even competitors can work together. Coopetition. Creating Multi-service and lifestyle bundles, that cross traditional company boarders, could provide a pathway to long-term, stickier customers.
Super Bundling a new type of bundling environment
New types of content hubs are emerging, whereby subscribers can pay for and manage multiple subscriptions in one place, known as Super Bundling. These environments, such such Optus SubHub, Verizon +play and Telenet’s new MyTelenet, provider a great environment for such multi-service bundles to be assembled, and could provide a great way for single-service apps to compete and provide great value to subscribers.
Decision time
So back to the music streaming, what have I missed, what am I over looking…. What do you use?
Thanks for sharing, Giles. I use Spotify all the time. Once I went on the paid subscription, there was no coming back 😅 I have used Amazon music a bit in the past as well.
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3moI pay for Apple One and only use Music. I watch YTP every day and don't have premium ... I think we both know what is about to happen 🔄 - Nice blog 🙌
Product Leader & Coach | VP of Products @Bango | B2B Enterprise SaaS in FinTech & Energy | Transforming Scale-ups & Startups
3moNice post Giles Tongue, Music streaming is such an interesting category because of the streaming rights of songs. I, like you, have a spotify subscription. It's been a real big change in our daily life sort of subscription - from car journeys, to working and even dancing with the kids in the house. My NAS running my library of CDs never managed to solve anything other than the work scenario. For me, other services never competed with library of songs or experience. For me, the content library trumps everything in music category. I used Apple Podcasts for podcasts previously, but most of my podcasts are also on youtube with video. As I start to be swamped by YT adverts and share the same dislike for my kids to be exposed to that - I like the idea of the YT bundle, but only if the content library is good enough.
Senior Marketing Manager | Subscriptions, Growth and Distribution
3moNice piece, thanks for sharing! I've dabbled with all the major music services apart from YouTube Music to date. I've heard that Apple Music is meant to have the superior sound quality feature (if you are into that thing) but I agree with you, the UX is all pretty much like-for-like and the content choice is almost identical too. My brother recently booted me off our Spotify Family Plan as I stopped paying him my portion (bad brother award goes to me 🥇) so I'm currently piggybacking off my wife's Spotify account but I dabble with Amazon Music (free tier) when she is using her own account.