We expected streaming subscription growth to slow in 2022 – but not this much.

That’s the key takeaway from MBW’s analysis of stats released by the Entertainment Retailers’ Association in the UK yesterday (January 10), and discussed by MBW founder Tim Ingham on the latest Talking Trends podcast.

As Ingham explains on the Talking Trends podcast, annual growth in the money spent on subscription streaming services in the UK last year was less than half the size it was in 2021… and less than a third of the size it was in 2018.

Such numbers highlight the urgency for major rightsholders, suggests Ingham, of Spotify in particular raising its prices in key markets.

You can read an abridged transcript of this episode of MBW’s Talking Trends below, and/or listen through here:

On-demand song streams in the US grew 12.2% in 2022, driven by superstars like Bad Bunny, Harry Styles and Taylor Swift.

That’s according to US market monitor Luminate (formerly MRC Data / Nielsen Music), which published its Year-End report for 2022 on Wednesday  (January 11, 2023), which you can download here.

That 12.2% growth translated to 1.3 trillion on-demand (Audio + Video) song streams in the US last year.

Globally, total on-demand song streams (Audio + Video) grew 25.6% in 2022 to reach5.3 trillion in total, compared to 4.2 trillion on-demand song streams in 2021.

In just over a year since its launch, more than 80% of the platform’s worldwide subscribers enjoyed the feature.

“With Spatial Audio, Apple Music set a new quality bar for music streaming, giving fans a deeper and more immersive experience than ever before,” Apple said in a release on Tuesday (January 10) as it disclosed that monthly plays in Spatial Audio have skyrocketed by over 1,000% in 2022.

Warner Bros Discovery was formed in April last year via the merger of WarnerMedia with Discovery, after the former company completed its acquisition of WarnerMedia from AT&T.

The merger combined entertainment and media properties ranging from the Discovery Channel, to Warner Bros. Entertainment, CNN, DC, Eurosport, HBO, HBO Max, HGTV, the Food Network and more

Sony just introduced two new devices called the NW-ZX707 and the NW-A306, which the company claims, offer “evolutionary sound”.

Music can be either streamed via Wi-Fi or downloaded to the devices.

The new Walkman players are supported by Android, and Sony says that you can use “your favourite streaming and music apps right on your Walkman or connect to a PC to access your music collection”.

Apple iOS compatibility is not mentioned in the product description.

MBW’s Stat Of The Week is a series in which we highlight a single data point that deserves the attention of the global music industry. Stat Of the Week is supported by Cinq Music Group, a technology-driven record label, distribution, and rights management company.