Spotify India Passes 1M Users In 1st Week: Stunning Stats About Streaming in World’s Most Populous Country

Spotify announced that it has passed 1 million users in India just a week after launching there. It's an impressive number until you remember that the country has a population of 1.34 billion, and that assuming that Spotify is following the same pattern as other streamers in India, only about 10,000 are paying to use the services.

Inida is a tough market for an music service, but Spotify entered late and under a cloud of litigation with Warner Music Group over royalties to music publishers. 

Here are just a few of the obstacles that Spotify must overcome in India:

• India may have 1.34 billion people, but only about 11% or 150 million subscribe to a music streaming service.
• Of that 150 million, only about 1% or 1.5 million pay to stream music.
• Those that do pay are charged far less that in other territories. Spotify Premium costs just $1.67 monthly in India and Apple Music charges $1.69
• Even these low subscription fees may prove to high in a country where the average nominal yearly income in 2018 was $2,134

The Indian music streaming market is expected to almost triple in the next 2-3 years to 400 million users.  How many Indian's choose Spot and how many of those pay monthly could determine whether or not Spotify has positioned itself as a truly global company. 

Source: Deloitte / IMI study