Spotify, Pandora lead in USA listeners, but not for long

Spotify has the most active users among all digital music and audio platforms, followed by Pandora, Amazon Music, and Apple Music.

But a growing Amazon Music will surpass a declining Pandora to grab the #2 spot sometime in 2022.

These stats do not include the substantial amount of music listening that happens on free video-first YouTube.

Spotify is the market leader in U.S. paid streaming audio subscriptions, followed by Apple Music, YouTube Premium, and Pandora. Amazon does not share paid stats independent of Prime, so they are not included in the eMarketer data despite being significant players in paid music subscriptions.

Bruce Houghton is Founder and Editor of Hypebot and MusicThinkTank and serves as a Senior Advisor to Bandsintown which acquired both publications in 2019. He is the Founder and President of the Skyline Artists Agency and a professor for the Berklee College Of Music.