Competition Remains Fierce in the U.S. Digital Audio Market

According to data collected in 2019 and 2023 by Statista Consumer Insights, competition in the U.S. music streaming segment remains fierce as three providers are reaching more than 40 percent of respondents as paying customers - at least at one point in the 12 months prior to the survey.

Amazon Music was the biggest of the bunch at 48 percent of respondent saying they had payed for it recently. That’s compared to 44 percent for Spotify and 42 percent for Apple Music. YouTube Music was the biggest up-and-comer in the survey, increasing its reach from 18 percent in 2019 to 33 percent in 2023. The service debuted it 2015.

The service iHeartRadio has also increased its listenership on its freemium platform where a subscriptions removes ads as well as gives access to broadcast radio. Pandora has been able to hold on to a loyal segment of the listenership through the years and has recently expanded from a personalized radio concept similar to iHeartRadio to on-demand listening in the style of other major platforms. iTunes, finally, which caters to the music download segment of the market, has lost reach as streaming has become the prevalent business model in digital music.