A new report claims that over one million UK subscribers have cancelled their streaming services such as Apple Music in Q1 2022, citing a need to save money.
Kantar Research also notes that there is a decline in the number of young people with music streaming subscriptions in the UK.
"With inflation rising to 9% in the United Kingdom and further rises in the cost of living expected," reports the company, "the rising cancellation rates of music subscriptions is evidence that British households are starting to prioritise the spending of their disposable income."
"Over 1 million subscriptions were cancelled in the last quarter," it continues, "which has also seen the highest level of consumers citing they want to save money as the reason they want to cancel their subscription, at 37%."
For comparison, Kantar notes that in the same period in 2021, a need to save money was given as reason by 33% of people cancelling their subscriptions.
"[In the UK] subscriptions are dropping the quickest amongst younger consumers," says Kantar. "[The] percentage of under 35 having access to a music subscription having dropped from 57.0% to 53.5% year on year."
As well as saving money, Kantar's research says younger subscribers are also cancelling because of technical difficulties, limited selection of music — and too many adverts.
The research from Kantar covers all streaming services available in the UK, and specifies Apple Music, Spotify, and Amazon Music. It reports that across all of the services, the number of new music subscribers in Q1 2022 "dropped to below 1% of the population" in the UK.
