Pandora was the most listened-to source of music streaming by listeners 13 years of age or older in 2016, according to a new report, with YouTube coming in a close second. Streaming also emerged as the No. 1 form of music listening, ahead of terrestrial and satellite radio broadcasts, digital downloads, and CDs, according to the survey.
Pandora Tops All Streamers
Music streaming service Pandora has had a rough go of it as of late, with the company posting financial losses and layoffs affecting the company's workforce. Rumors still swirl surrounding a potential acquisition of the company by satellite radio giant SiriusXM, but Pandora recently rejected SiriusXM's takeover offer.
There was good news for Pandora however, in a recent survey that indicates that the streaming service was the most listened-to music streamer of all in 2016. Pandora checked in with 28 percent of all music streaming, with 25 percent of that attributable to Pandora's free, ad-supported listening tier and 3 percent of listening taking place on paid tier Pandora One.
YouTube came in a very close second, with a total of 27 percent of all music streams in 2016, while Spotify placed a surprisingly distant third considering the company announced it had passed 100 million active users in 2016. Spotify racked up 17 percent of music streams, with 10 percent of those streams on Spotify's free tier while 7 percent came from its monthly paid tier.
iHeartRadio came in with 6 percent of streams, while the paid subscription-only Apple Music surprisingly lagged, accounting for just 4 percent of streams, including free on its Beats One radio station - just tying with Amazon and Google Play Music.
MusicWatch, which commissioned the survey, expects Amazon to make further inroads this year.
"With the recent introduction of Unlimited, and a successful holiday season selling Echo devices, Amazon is expected to have a big impact on the 2017 streaming landscape," according to the company's analysis.
Streaming Is No. 1 Listening Format
When it came to overall music listening, streaming was king, with 28 percent of music accessed via stream in 2016. AM and FM radio came in a close second with 24 percent of listening, while a combination of "Owned" music categories that included CDs, vinyl and digital downloads came in third at 23 percent.
Satellite Radio company SiriusXM made a surprisingly strong showing, garnering almost 6 percent of total music listening. The company announced that it had surpassed 30 million paid subscribers in 2016. Since listening figures are music-related only, if SiriusXM's stable of popular talk and news programming - including heavyweight Howard Stern - were included, the company's listening figures would be significantly higher.
