Means More Revenue For Artists And Songwriters
I've been saying for months to watch out for Amazon's music streaming service, and now there's some data to back that up.According to a report by market-research firm Parks Associates that was sited in Billboard, 66% of the 97 million U.S. households with broadband connections listen to a streaming audio service. 40% of them use a free service, while 26% listen to a paid streaming service.
Here's where the data gets interesting. Amazon Prime Music has the lead with about 10% of those households that subscribe to a paid service, followed by Pandora One at 6%, Spotify Premium at 4%, SiriusXM Streaming at 4%, iTunes Match at 2% and Google Play Music at 2%.
Amazon Prime has an estimated 40 million domestic subscribers, according to Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, although some figures reach as high as 90 million. Whatever the number, it's large and now it appears that many of those customers are beginning to discover the value of Prime Music, which is part of the Prime subscription.
Amazon Prime has been completely under the radar when it comes to the streaming music wars, but shouldn't be underestimated. Amazon's a huge company with deep pockets, and ultimately may be the only company that can ultimately take on Apple, Google and maybe Spotify.
The one downside to Prime Music is that it's catalog is relatively small at 1 million or so (most other services are 25 million plus), and doesn't have the latest hits. That may not be a factor as the customers using it may not ultimately care.
The point is that Amazon Prime is becoming another viable revenue stream when it comes to streaming music.
2 comments:
Why doesn't Amazon Prime Music streaming open their streaming library to basically all the indie digital distro companies? As you say, I doubt that artists would turn down another revenue stream.
That is an extremely unfair comparison. Amazon Prime does not compare at all to Apple Music, Spotify, Napster etc.
How many of the 40 million Amazon Prime members (including myself) actually listen to the streaming service. Most people sign up for the other benefits such as free priority shipping.
The other services are used 100% by subscribers.
Post a Comment