Québec Study Shows Streaming Growth Hitting a Wall

Most industry reports obsess over subscriber numbers and how much money platforms are making. A new study out of Québec zooms in on something more basic: how many times people are actually hitting play.

The numbers tell the story. In 2025, on-demand platforms logged 31.9 billion streams across the province. That's a 3% bump from the year before. Sounds fine until you see the trajectory: 12% growth in 2024, 16% in 2023. The line is going down.

Why it matters: If streams per user are plateauing, that means the streaming economy can't keep banking on people just consuming more and more music. Playlists get stale. Discovery slows. At some point you run out of new listening time. The industry's assuming exponential growth—but the data from Québec suggests we might already be hitting the ceiling.

It's not doom. But it's a reality check. Streaming proponents have always said the model would eventually mature. Looks like that moment might actually be here.

Read the full story at Music Ally → https://musically.com/2026/08/12/quebec-study-warns-of-a-slowdown-in-growth-for-music-streams/