iTunes Radio now Third Most Popular U.S. Music Streaming Service

[RaduTyrsina]

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According to newly released data by Statista, cited by Electronista publication, with only 6 months after launch, Apple’s iTunes Radio is already more popular than Spotify, being the third most used music streaming service in the United States. Apple’s iTunes Radio currently owns 8 percent of the U.S. streaming music market, being ahead of Spotify with 6 percent and behind second-place iHeart Radio which has a 9 percent share.

The absolute leader remains Pandora, with a 31 percent share. Pandora has 80 million U.S. users, being four times bigger than Apple’s database of 20 million users. The same survey predicts that Apple’s iTunes Radio service will overtake iHeartRadio before the end of the year. On the fifth place we find the Google Play All Access service with 3 percent, followed by Rhapsody, Slacker, and TuneIn Radio, with a roughly equal 2 percent share. The survey has been conducted on 2,023 Americans aged 12 and older by Edison Research.

While Pandora made $410 million in revenue in 2012, it cleared only $16 million in profit. In 2013, it earned $638 million in revenue but lost $40.7 million for the year, and has warned investors it will likely lose money for the next year or two. There is also evidence that listeners are growing tired of Pandora’s limited pool of about 800,000 songs. Its closest rival, iHeartRadio, is a service owned by terrestrial radio company Clear Channel and has both lower royalty rates and some 800 commercial radio stations featured in the app. Apple, of course, can invest in iTunes Radio as it wishes, and has access to the largest pool of available music anywhere, with over 15 million songs available.

Apple is expanding its iTunes Radio across the whole world, the service getting released in Australia last month. Acording to senior vice president of Internet software and services at Apple, Eddy Cue, the company is interested to have the musing streaming servicein more than 100 countries. Apple has an advantage over its competitors when it comes to foreign markets thanks to its existing international rights deals with Universal Music Group and other record companies.

Source: iPhoneforums

 

[Elux72]

I'm still looking forward to iTunes Radio being released in Canada.

 

[Ser Aphim]

That fast?

 

[s2mikey]

That fast?

Really.... Must not have been much competition after the first two to get there this quick. There doesn't seem to be anything compelling about it or any reason it's better than any of the others. It's just a user interface choice or whatever. I'll stick with accu radio.

 

[AQ_OC]

Really.... Must not have been much competition after the first two to get there this quick. There doesn't seem to be anything compelling about it or any reason it's better than any of the others. It's just a user interface choice or whatever. I'll stick with accu radio.

Don't forget that it is baked into iOS. So new users don't need to download another app. Even though I don't use it much, I go to it first now.

 

[Ser Aphim]

Don't forget that it is baked into iOS. So new users don't need to download another app. Even though I don't use it much, I go to it first now.

I had to change country stores to use this. I like it. It rarely get disrupted, but its nice. I like it.

 

[s2mikey]

Don't forget that it is baked into iOS. So new users don't need to download another app. Even though I don't use it much, I go to it first now.

This is true. I use the music player today songs I have on the iPad but for radio I don't much. I'm sure it's fine though and being baked in does matter!