MIDiA Research has frequently explored questions of pricing in the streaming economy. Its latest report is titled Streaming Music Pricing: Inelastic Stretching, and it examines the standard $9.99 price point for on-demand streaming. According to the company’s data, that model will continue to attract customers this year, with 146.6 million estimated subscribers worldwide. However, the report predicts a slower rate of growth starting in 2018.
“Around 2/3 of the readily addressable opportunity for 9.99 has already been tapped and this remainder is what will drive the 2017 growth,” MIDiA founder Mark Mulligan said in a blog post announcing the report. “New tactics will be required for the rest of the cycle.”
He was more lukewarm about the prospects for mid-tier subscriptions, but instead predicted that niche services costing $4 a month (or less) would be more successful in the future. “To work, mid tier products have to look like something unique, not a compromised, watered down version of the full fat product,” Mulligan wrote. “Mid tier services risk looking like low-fat, gluten-free, sugar-free, organic, diet, hand knitted soya milk.”
The full report is available for MIDiA subscribers.