Just Who Is Winning The Streaming War?

There's no doubt that streaming is catching on slowly but surely, as more and more people discover that having immediate access to a large library is better than owning a small one. That being said, Spotify seems to get most of the publicity. You may be surprised to learn that the service is actually far behind the leader though.

According to a new study published by the NPD Group called "Music Acquisition Monitor," streaming music usage in 13 to 35 year olds looks like this:

Pandora (free) - 39%
iHeart Radio - 11%
Spotify (free) - 9%
Grooveshark - 3%
Slacker - 2%
Pandora One - 2%
TuneIn - 2%
LastFM - 2%
XBox Music - 2%

Streaming music accounted for 23% of the demographic group's total listening. Interestingly, for those older than 36, this figure decreases to 13%, as most of their listening still belongs to AM/FM radio.

It's interesting that Pandora gets so little press (unless it's about royalty payments) yet has such a large lead in marketshare. It also should be interesting to see if these numbers hold up after Apple's iRadio is introduced later in the year. Next year's study might prove to be something very different.

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