Abroad, the platform ranking reshuffled, but much of that movement comes from players that don't even operate here, like Russia's Yandex and China's NetEase. In Brazil and Latin America, the board is stable, comfortably led by Spotify. The lesson for an artist, though, is the same in both scenarios: stable or volatile, no platform hands you the relationship with the fan.
The number of paid music subscribers worldwide rose from 472 million in 2020 to 921.6 million in 2025: up 10.1% in the last year alone, with the 1 billion landmark in sight, according to MIDiA Research. It is one of the rare markets to have nearly doubled in half a decade, and Brazil sits at the center of that growth. But when you look at who gained and who lost share, it's worth separating the global phenomenon from what actually happens in the market where you operate.
What changed globally
In the global aggregate, between the end of 2020 and the end of 2025, Apple Music shrank from 18.4% to 12.6% of the subscriber market and Amazon Music slipped from 12.3% to 8.5%. YouTube Music rose from 7.9% to 12.4%. Platforms such as Russia's Yandex and China's NetEase multiplied their share. Only one stayed essentially still: Spotify, around 30% the entire time, according to MIDiA.
What that means for Brazil, and what it doesn't
Here is the nuance that changes the conversation. Much of the global "reshuffle" is driven by Yandex and NetEase, which don't operate in Brazil or Latin America. In our market the game is different and far more stable: Spotify leads comfortably, surrounded by Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music and Deezer. There is movement (Apple losing some ground, YouTube gaining) but it's gradual. No one can honestly say the Brazilian ranking "turned upside down".
In other words: if you work with artists in Brazil, the picture of your market is one of relative stability, not chaos. And that is precisely why the argument has to be made carefully, because it doesn't depend on a platform earthquake to hold up.
Why stability isn't the same as safety
In Brazil, the risk isn't that the platform where your audience lives disappears tomorrow. The risk is quieter and structural: even in a calm market, the artist doesn't own the relationship with the fan. An algorithm changes, an editorial playlist drops the artist, a distribution rule shifts, and none of it runs through the team's hands. The audience looks like yours, but it lives in systems you don't control, inside a market you don't command. You don't need a crisis to be exposed; you only need to have never held the fan's contact.
That is why "having millions of listeners" and "having an audience" remain different things, in a volatile market or a stable one. Listeners are a metric the platform lends you. An audience is when you know who those people are, where they are, and how to reach them directly.
Brazil is the engine, which is why the clock is ticking
Latin America, together with Asia-Pacific and the rest of the world, accounted for more than 70% of all subscriber growth for the fifth year running, with the region hitting a record peak in net additions, and Brazil as the driving force, according to MIDiA. In other words: this is where most people are entering streaming right now. Every new subscriber is a potential fan whose relationship is being formed, right now, inside a platform the artist doesn't control. The sooner the team starts capturing part of that relationship, the larger the owned base it builds as the market grows.
What an artist does with this
This is not an argument against streaming. Streaming is the best discovery engine music has ever had and remains the top of the funnel, all the more so in an expanding market like Brazil's. The point is different: the relationship with the fan cannot end at streaming. Every release, every show, every viral moment has to convert part of that reach into something the artist actually owns: an email, a WhatsApp number, an identified ticket buyer. Stable or volatile, that is the only asset that doesn't change hands.
It doesn't matter whether the market where your audience lives is stable like Brazil's or volatile like the global one: if you had to reach your fans tomorrow, without depending on any platform or algorithm, could you?