Pandora Holds Lead As Top Music Streaming Service In The U.S.
"The Infinite Dial 2015" report from Edison Research and Triton Digital took an in depth look at US music streaming revealing Pandora as the clear leader.
Music streaming pioneer, Pandora has proven it's staying power in what an increasingly saturated marketplace, dominating US music streaming by impressive margins. Pandora remains the go-to for 54% of the 2002 people ages 12 and older who participated in the study – a staggering 43% lead over iHeart Radio's 2nd place standing of 11%. Pandora has the highest brand awareness (75%) amongst other streaming services and the highest monthly usage (45%).
Spotify, consistently landed in fourth place among Pandora, iHeart Radio, and iTunes Radio respectively, perhaps a taking a step toward debunking "all PR is good PR" myth. The weeks Spotify spent in leading industry publication headlines didn't seem to do them any favors. Despite the effort to entice listeners with 3 months of Spotify Premium for $0.99, the streaming service ranked 4th in Audio Brand Usage (13%) and 6th in Audio Brand Awareness. (41%)
While there is much of 2015 left to see how music streaming pans out across the industry, one thing is for sure: Apple has a tough row to hoe with Beats Music. The relaunch is going to have to part the seas and call the masses to tip the scales in their favor as Beats Music came in least effective at converting awareness into active listeners.
Many cards are still in play for 2015, time will have to tell how each service chooses to play their hand.
Interesting observation Laura. I love listening to the Pandora stations Tom Rush and Leandra Peak. Somehow their genomics hit exactly the sweet spots of the music I like, and their write-ups are really great. As a musician I have been listening to the debate about their struggles to reduce their payouts, but as a business person it seems to me that the point is they are trying to buck the worst aspects of what the music business has become: hyper-inflated corporate labels and publishers and then advertising revenue. In fact with digital technology, it’s possible that a company like pandora could simply develop a database to track direct payments to writers and performers and the sucking noise might abate from the middle entities and the RIAA lawyers. I just bought a small amount of stock, which is really cheap right now. But I enjoy the thought of investing in something I enjoy and appreciate.
What do you think are the chances of a new music service launching this year and taking over all the others?