With the advent of streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music, and Pandora, it has become easier than ever for music lovers to find their favorite tunes. Here are the top five music streaming services in the United States as of 2018.
- Spotify: With over 30 million active users in the United States, Spotify is by far the most popular music streaming service on the market. The app is free to download and use, and offers a wide variety of music genres and styles to choose from.
- Apple Music: With over 50 million active users in the United States, Apple Music is second only to Spotify when it comes to popularity. The app is free to download and use, but offers a more limited selection of music than Spotify does. However, Apple Music does offer exclusive content not available on other streaming services, like live concerts from artists like Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran.
- Pandora: Pandora is a popular choice for those who want an unlimited amount of music options without having to pay for them upfront. The service offers ad-supported listening as well as a paid subscription option that allows users access to an even wider range of songs and artists.
- Amazon Prime Music: Amazon Prime members can access tens of millions of songs through Prime Music – including exclusive content not available on any other streaming service – at no additional cost. However, unlike some other streaming services, Prime Music doesn’t offer ad-supported listening or a paid subscription option that gives users access to an even wider range of songs and artists.
- Tidal: Tidal is a new player on the scene that has been making waves with its high-quality audio files and exclusive content offerings. The service costs $9 per month (or $120 per year) plus taxes, but offers an impressive library of both new and old music that’s unavailable elsewhere on the market ..
Interesting to note is that while Spotify continues to dominate, the latest numbers are actually a drop from 33% in 2020, which is a small but noticeable decrease. In Q2 2019, Spotify had 34% of the market, so the drop has been happening for a couple of years now.
According to Midia Research, there are a total of 523.9 million total music streaming subscribers in Q2 2021. If that number is accurate, that means Spotify had about 162.4 million subscribers paying for its music streaming service as of Q2 2021. That total number is up 109.5 million over the same time in 2020, so a lot of users signed up for premium music streaming services.
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