Breaking the data: How subscription models are changing consumer spending patterns

Research evidence excerpt

Breaking the data: How subscription models are changing consumer spending patterns

Economics ● Global

23 July 2026

A tale of two sectors

In addition, while subscriptions do tend to push up spending in aggregate, it is not always the

The effect on total spend

case and does vary hugely by sector. For example, let’s take two of the earliest sectors whichvaries by sector

saw a switch over from purchases of tangible goods to a subscription model: music and film/TV.

For film/TV, chart 1 shows that subscription services have been relatively successful in lifting

spending on the sector, including in real terms. While one subscription might be more cost-

effective than the old video rental models, the proliferation of streaming services (all with

different offerings) means many households have multiple subscriptions, potentially costing

them more.

1. The move to subscriptions pushed up 2. …but pushed down spending in music

spending in television…

Source: BLS Source: BLS

For music, the picture is completely different. Firstly, the pre-streaming landscape was not

dominated by rental, but instead by purchases of albums; this made the shift to streaming

dominance more jarring. Secondly, the streaming landscape is very different. While there are

multiple platforms, they typically carry similar catalogues of songs, making it rare for consumers

to subscribe to multiple platforms as they do for film/TV.

As a result, while the streaming era means consumers are spending more on film/TV than ever

before, the music industry has seen a decline in real spending on recorded music. Instead, any

uplift for the latter has come from the (increasingly expensive) live entertainment sector.

3. Paywalls helped a spending revival in the newspaper sector

Source: US BLS, Macrobond