It was 1970 in Woking, England, and for ??2 he purchased The Beatles' Let It Be.

Even at 61, he remembers the album artwork, sporting the shaggy heads of the Liverpudlian foursome.

"The only thing I miss about [vinyl] is the artwork, and the lyrics on the cover ... it was all part of the experience," Mr Rothery said.

Now he spends $11.99 a month on a Spotify Premium subscription.

And despite once owning around 500 records and nearly 1000 CDs, now there's not disc in sight at his Sydney apartment.

"With vinyl and CDs I was spending $1000 a year minimum, to add to my collection. Now I spend $144, and not just for my own collection, but millions of others."

Music streaming in Australia increased by more than 90 per cent past year, according to the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA).

Streaming revenue now accounts for 38.5 per cent of Australia's overall music market, exceeding revenues for both physical music purchases and downloads for the first time last year.

Spotify, Soundcloud, Apple Music and Pandora are among the major streaming services that have caught the ear of Australians, all of which offer free and paid-for premium services.

"They've delivered a business model which has made the whole equation that much more attractive," said David Glance, director of the University of Western Australia Centre for Software Practice.

"You don't have to pirate music, it's not worth your while ... what they offer is an optimal price for access to almost any piece of music in existence."

A subscription to Spotify Premium (including access on all devices, all songs on demand and offline abilities) costs $11.99 a month for an individual, $17.99 for a family (up to six accounts) and $5.99 for students.

On Apple Music, the pricing model is identical, while Pandora charges between $4.99 and $12.99 a month.

Soundcloud supports two premium platforms; Soundcloud Pro, which costs $7 a month, and Soundcloud Pro Unlimited, which is $15 a month.

Mr Rothery has also sampled more than one streaming service in the past five years and now considers his music subscription as he would any other household bill.

"It's almost more important than my electricity."

Converting consumers to subscription models is not difficult, if they are already in that "frame of mind" with other services like Netflix, says Mr Glance, of UWA.

"But I think Pandora and Spotify suffer by having too large an audience, which is not paying. Once somebody has something for free, even if it's only 70 per cent of what they want, moving them to paying is much harder."

Spotify's Australia and New Zealand label relations manager Tom Mee admits the ad-supported "free-tier" is a "hugely popular entry point," but argues that "over 80 per cent of Premium subscribers come from the free tier."

In its 2016 Music Consumer Report, ticketing platform Eventbrite found 40 per cent of Australians regarded music as their number one passion, but that did not translate into sales, largely in the 16-24 year old female market.

Eventbrite argued that the lack of spending revealed a clear problem "with the perceived value of music."

"... Foxtel customers pay hundreds of dollars per annum for an incomplete offering ... [with] regular advertising. Meanwhile, music services supply almost all the music in the world for on-demand usage, ad free, for around $140 per annum."

Pandora supports around 1.5 million listeners in Australia and New Zealand, and despite its paid-for platform, 97 per cent of its listeners use the ads-supported free version.

At Red Eye Records in Sydney, manager Matt Huddy said "some customers" have definitely been lost to streaming services, but not all.

"We saw a major drop in sales about 10 years ago due to the entrance of JB Hi-Fi and other budget CD shops that have all now gone bust," he said.

"But we are doing 400 per cent more in vinyl sales than six years ago."

On Spotify, Canberra has the highest ratio of plays to users, closely followed by North Sydney and Surry Hills.

Canadian rapper and singer songwriter Drake is the nation's top streamed artist on the platform.