Music streaming services are becoming increasingly attractive to advertisers as their audiences grow rapidly in size, New Media Age reports.

Ad-funded music streaming service We7 announced reaching a tipping point in March – for the first time monthly streaming costs were fully covered by ad revenue.

According to the CEO of We7 Steve Purdham, the service has grown from 10,000 users in 2008 to 3 million in only two years.

He said: “The momentum of the audience is bigger than most radio stations. That in itself is making brands at the very least explore what’s going on.”

Also, the music streaming flagship Spotify has recently amplified its sales strategies in the UK to create new ad opportunities to match the interest.

After winning advertisers over, the next challenge for the streaming services is to convince the remaining sceptics in the music industry to hop on board.

Alyssa Tisne, VP of strategic partnerships at 7digital, said: “There’s still industry-wide reluctance to throw out the old business models and drop fixed-price models or embrace any service which is fully supported by ads.”

Source: New Media Age