Online radio services such as Pandora are gaining ground among younger users, according to new data from NPD Group. Subscription-based and free streaming music services drew nearly a quarter (23%)
of average weekly music listening time among listeners between 13 and 35 in the fourth quarter, up from 17% a year ago.
That’s nearly the same as the share listening to AM/FM radio,
which fell two percentage points to 24%. Among people 36 and over, AM/FM radio dominated with a 41% share.
“Driven by mobility and connectivity, music-streaming services are rapidly
growing their share of the music listening experience for teens and young adults, at the expense of traditional music listening methods,” said Russ Crupnick, SVP of industry analysis at NPD.
With the streaming music category, Pandora is the clear favorite among listeners 13-35, with a 39% share, followed by iHeartRadio (11%), and Spotify (9%). More than half (51%) of this audience said
most of their music listening was in their cars.
The findings come from NPD’s “Music Acquisition Monitor,” based on data from 7,600 NPD consumer surveys. Survey data was
weighted to represent U.S. population of Internet users (age 13 and older).