Study: Amazon Prime Music sees 50% rise in US subscribers

New data from US digital entertainment research firm Parks Associates indicates that the two major streaming services, Spotify and Apple Music, are facing competition in the United States from new arrivals.

The biggest rival, according to the study 360 View: Digital Media & Connected Consumers, is Amazon Prime Music.

It is now in 15% of households, after a 50% growth of subscribers in 2016 from the year before. This represents almost half of all American streaming music subscribers.

It has a smaller song catalogue than the big two services, but its success has been found in a bundling model with its wider Prime membership package.

Late last year, Amazon also introduced Amazon Music Unlimited to the market, an on-demand music streaming service with tens of millions of songs and multiple subscription options.

The Dallas-based Parks Associates’ Senior Analyst, Glenn Hower, commented, “Amazon’s bundled service model has been a successful strategy in boosting the company’s status in multiple content verticals.

“Nearly one-half of streaming music subscribers, the equivalent of 15% of all broadband households, indicate they have a subscription to Amazon Prime Music.

“The number of households with access to Amazon’s music services through a Prime subscription is higher, as 28% of broadband households indicate they subscribe to Amazon Prime Video, so the number of streaming music subscribers likely reflects actual usage of the streaming music portion of Amazon’s service.”

According to Parks Associates’ figures, Spotify nearly doubled its subscriber base in the 12 month period. It went from 4% of US broadband households to 7%.

Sirius XM Streaming, Apple Music, and YouTube Music all experienced “modest adoption” increases. Pandora’s and Google Play Music remained static.

The study does not provide any specific numbers. Amazon has not revealed how many Amazon Prime US payers it has. Statista quotes a source that it was 65 million as of September 2016, up from 63 million three months before.

Spotify says it has 40 million subscribers around the world, but there are no stand-alone US figures. Apple has revealed that of its 20 million subscribers, over half come from outside the US.

“One-third of U.S. broadband households now subscribe to a paid streaming music service, up from 26% in 2015,” Hower added.

“Although free ad-supported music services offer convenience and ease-of-listening, consumers have been swayed to pay for services that offer commercial-free listening, on-demand content, and expanded libraries.”

The study says:

• 58% of US broadband households stream music or audio outside the home.

• On average, US broadband households stream 3.6 hours of music or audio per week on computers.

• US broadband households stream on average 2.7 hours of music or audio per week on smartphones.