Russia’s leading music streaming service Yandex.Music saw its paid subscribers triple in 2016 making it the country’s second largest steaming service behind Apple Music.
A spokesperson for Yandex.Music, which is run by Yandex (a.k.a. the “the Russian Google”) told Billboard that at the end of last year the number of the paid subscribers reached 250,000, a threefold increased from a year before.
The figure includes users of Yandex.Music’s applications for mobile devices and music apps developed in partnership with the mobile phone companies MTS, Kiyevstar and Vodafone.
Users can still get access to Yandex.Music on their desktop and laptop computers for free.
With its 250,000 subscribers, Yandex.Music is now Russia’s second largest streaming music service, behind Apple Music, which has 600,000 subscribers and ahead of Google Play Music, with 100,000 according to the business daily Vedomosti.
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Australia’s Guvera, which launched in Russia in 2014 and for a while was the sole foreign operator in the country’s streaming music market, pulled out of the territory in the last year.
According to Vedomosti, Russia’s total streaming segment was worth 2.4 billion rubles ($34 million) in 2016, although not all of the main players have yet to report their revenues.
Yandex.Music was launched in 2010 as a free service. It added subscription applications for iPhone and Android phones in 2012 and 2013, respectively. According to AppAnnie, Yandex.Music is one of Russia’s top-five most profitable apps.
The monthly subscription fee ranges from 169 rubles ($2.80) to 229 rubles ($3.80).