However, Apple’s total subscription base actually grew 36% year-over-year due to the Cupertino-based tech giant’s high focus on its services segment. “Apple Music is making improvements in its app like the introduction of night mode, curated playlists to target a group,” said Abhilash Kumar, Researh Analyst at Counterpoint. Talking about the top performers, Kumar added, “Spotify maintained its top spot with the help of promotional activities like free Spotify Premium for three months, price cuts, customized campaigns like Spotify and a focus on exclusive content.” Asserting that increasing paid subscriptions is of prime importance for music streaming platforms, Counterpoint Research added that more than 80% of music streaming revenue came from paid subscriptions. The rest came from advertisements and partnerships with brands and telcos. The increase in subscription base is also driven by the availability of exclusive content like podcasts, originals which attracted people towards the platform and eventually turned them as subscribers. Moreover, promotional activities like price cuts in subscriptions in emerging markets, bundled offers from telcos added to the growth. Researchers at Counterpoint believe that online music streaming subscriptions is likely to grow more than 25% YoY to exceed 450 million subscriptions by the end of calendar year 2020. For the latest gadget and tech news, and gadget reviews, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. For newest tech & gadget videos subscribe to our YouTube Channel. You can also stay up to date using the Gadget Bridge Android App.