Southeast Asia’s most popular music streaming services (infographic)

Music streaming services are huge in the US and European countries. According to Bloomberg, music streaming generated US$2.4 billion in sales last year in the US alone, surpassing digital downloads and propelling the business to its first year of growth since 2011.

However, in Southeast Asia, there is still a lot of space for music streaming services to grow. Recently, the concept finally got off to a proper start as some of the services already popular in the west made their way to Southeast Asia. Deezer, founded in France and currently available in more than 180 countries, expanded to the region in August 2012. It first became available in Thailand – and, within weeks, was followed by Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines. To gain popularity, these services made a push toward mobile, which is something they knew would benefit them particularly in Southeast Asia, where droves of young people are discovering the internet via smartphones.

Sweden-based Spotify, for instance, demonstrated that it understands Indonesia’s mobile first market well when it launched in the country on March 2016. Besides letting users choose from a variety of popular payment methods, including bank transfers and paying cash at convenience stores, it also partners with Indosat Ooredoo, one of the biggest local mobile phone operators. Indosat Ooredoo users can enjoy cheaper Spotify subscriptions and aren’t even charged for data when listening to their favorite tunes on smartphones.

Some of these services let you listen to music for free on mobile, but you’ll hear advertisements squeezed between tracks. Free subscriptions are also limited in how you can play or skip music. Apple Music and Tidal, on the other hand, currently offer no free subscription plans.

Users are also embracing local services that stream exclusively in their countries, like Spinnr in the Philippines, NhacCuaTui in Vietnam, and Langit Musik in Indonesia. Such services gain popularity among locals who don’t have bank accounts or credit cards, because they offer carrier billing as payment method.

So, back to the question, what are the most popular music streaming services in Southeast Asia?

Infographic by Tech in Asia’s Kathrinna Rakhmavika