Streaming

Music streaming is now the fastest growing way to listen to music and in many countries has overtaken traditional media such as CDs, Vinyl and digital downloads. HiRes Audio Online’s Streaming category will review and give advice on the best streaming services and publish useful guides to getting started with music streaming for hi-fi in the home or on your mobile.

Global Streaming Market Share for the first half of 2018
Streaming

Streaming music subscribers reach 230 million worldwide

29/09/2018

Music subscribers grew by 16% in the first half of 2018 to reach 229.5 million, up from 198.6 million at the end of 2017 according to media and technology analysts, MIDiA Research. Year-on-year the global subscriber base increased by 38%, adding 62.8 million subscribers compared to 60.8 million net new subscribers added between H1 2016 and H1 2017. Continued growth is expected in the relatively undeveloped markets of Japan, Germany, Brazil, Mexico and Russia with […]

Stacks of CDs
Streaming

CD Quality Music Streaming

12/08/2018

For those of us who aspire to HiFi standards and have spent more money than we would like to admit to our significant others on that shiny bit of kit in the living room, streaming MP3 quality music seems a giant leap backwards. Sidestepping the arguments over whether vinyl discs or CDs are better music sources for true audiophiles, the CD has been the go to music source of choice for the vast majority of […]

DEEZER on Google Home
Streaming

How to stream CD Quality lossless FLAC on Google Home

21/07/2018

9 million Smart Speakers were sold globally in the first quarter of 2018 with Google Home commanding the largest share of sales at 3.2 million devices, a 36.2% share of the market, and nearly doubling sales from a year ago. Global sales of all Smart Speakers in 2018 are predicted to reach 56.3 million devices with the US accounting for 68.2% of the total purchases, according to research firm Canalys.   What is a Smart […]

Amazon Echo in the Living Room
Streaming

Are Smart Speakers the future of Streaming?

15/04/2018

Smart Speakers will fuel the next wave of music consumption and market growth. 48% of all Smart Speaker owners have a premium subscription to a music-streaming service and with global sales of 24m-27m Smart Speakers in 2017, 55% of US households will own a Smart Speaker by 2022. […]

Streaming on a mobile phone
Streaming

Music Streaming Audio Quality

18/03/2018

Music streaming has seen a five-fold increase in value from 2012-2017 and now has a global turnover of over $5bn annually. The popularity of streaming has increased and we are now have high quality streaming services which equal or in some cases surpass traditional hi-fi music sources for audio quality. […]