Global Paid Music Streaming Crossed 900 Million Subscribers in 2025 -- or Fell 73 Million Short, Depending on the Tracker

Findings

• IFPI Global Music Report 2026 counts 837 million users of paid music-streaming subscription accounts globally at the end of 2025, up from a restated 764 million in 2024 -- an increase of 73 million accounts.
• Goldman Sachs Music in the Air forecasts 827 million global paid subscribers for 2025, up 10% from 752 million in 2024 -- within 1.2% of IFPIs figure but 10.3% below MIDiAs.
• MIDiA Research subscriber model puts the end-2025 global total at 921.6 million paid subscribers, 10.1% higher than its own 2024 base of 837.3 million.
• The trackers diverge because they count differently: IFPI and Goldman Sachs track paid subscription accounts, where one account can cover a family or multi-user plan, while MIDiAs model counts each individual user inside bundled and multi-user plans separately -- inflating its total by roughly 85-95 million relative to the account-based counts.
• Whether paid music streaming crossed 900 million subscribers in 2025 depends entirely on the counting convention: MIDiA says yes, IFPI and Goldman Sachs both say no.