Amazon Music to become the #2 music streamer in the US, Apple Music distant #4

While Spotify continues to dominate, Amazon Music is on track to pass Pandora to become the #2 music streamer in the US. Apple Music remains a distant fourth.

By the end of 2022, Amazon Music will have 52.6 million US users, up 5.3% from last year. By contrast, Pandora’s user base will decline this year by 6.7% to 49.1 million. Pandora has been steadily losing US users since 2017, but its steepest decline came last year when it lost 11.0%, according to a new Insider Intelligence study.

By the end of this year, Spotify is projected to have 89.2 million users, up 7.0%. This is Spotify’s first year of just single-digit growth since Insider Intelligence began tracking it in 2013.

“By being the one-stop shop for music and podcasts, Spotify has been able to steadily attract both ad-supported listeners and Premium subscribers,” according to the study. “The company has also been able to generate strong network effects by integrating its service across the social media landscape, and by offering deeply discounted family plans. Combined, this has made Spotify the most popular destination for all things digital audio.”

Apple Music is a distant #4 in the U.S. streaming race in large part because it has no ad-supported free service.  Apple Music’s US users will grow 3.1% in 2022 to 38.2 million.

Slower Growth

By the 2022, there will be 221.9 million digital audio listeners in the US, up just 1.3% over last year. By 2024, II predicts that digital audio listeners will surpass two-thirds of the US population.

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.