YouTube beats Spotify and Apple Music in South Africa

YouTube Music is the cheapest music streaming platform available to South African residents, with over 100 million tracks for R59.99 per month for individuals and R89.99 per month for a family subscription.

While some may miss thumbing through the cases at their local CD or record store, streaming services provide access to millions of tracks for a monthly subscription fee.

According to data from Midia Research, Spotify holds the highest music streaming market share — and by some margin — with 30.5% of the global market share.

Apple Music holds a share of 13.7%, while Amazon Music holds 13.3% of the market.

However, Midia found that Spotify’s dominance was declining. Its market share has dropped from a high of 33.2% in the second quarter of 2018.

MyBroadband compared five popular music streaming services — Amazon Music Unlimited, Apple Music, Deezer, Spotify, YouTube Music, and YouTube Premium — regarding pricing, limits, and library sizes.

For R5 more per month than YouTube Music, South Africans can sign up for Spotify’s individual plan, or they can opt to pay R100 monthly for access for up to six family members.

Apple Music’s individual plan costs R69.99, and it charges R110 a month for its family subscription.

It offers a similar library size to Spotify. However, Apple Music limits personal libraries to 100,000 tracks.

Spotify and Apple Music have student plans for R34.99.

Music fans who frequently watch videos on YouTube may be attracted to YouTube Premium, which includes access to its music streaming service in addition to removing ads on videos and several other benefits.

Individuals can sign up for R71.99 monthly, while the family plan costs R109.99 per month. Students can sign up for R41.99 per month.

At R79.99 per month for individuals, Deezer offers the smallest library of the lot at 90 million tracks. It limits personal libraries to 10,000 tracks.

The family plan costs R130 per month, while students can sign up for R35.90.

Amazon Music Unlimited is the most expensive of the lot at £10.99 (R253) per month. The family plan is priced at £17.99 (R414), while students pay £5.99 (R138).

It and Spotify are the only services that don’t place limitations on personal library sizes, and Amazon Music also offers a library containing more than 100 million songs.

Five popular music streaming services are compared regarding price, limits, and library size in the table below.

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