Study Indicates Web Radio Rising Faster Than On-Demand Services

By Rob Scott
November 12, 2012

The way consumers interact with music today is not simply evolving from an analog to digital experience, but also involves shifts from downloads to streaming.
Web radio services, such as Pandora, have experienced more recent growth than on-demand players such as Spotify and Rhapsody, indicates a new study.
In the second quarter of 2012, U.S. audiences for Internet radio services increased by 27 percent over the previous year, according to findings from The NPD Group. Meanwhile, on-demand services including Rhapsody, Spotify, YouTube and others had an 18 percent increase in listeners.
NPD also reported that AM/FM radio is still the top choice in the U.S. for listening to music, followed by music streaming services and Web radio, which have displaced CDs.
“Since 2009, the percentage of Pandora users who also listen to AM/FM radio declined by 10 percentage points,” notes the report. “Listening to digital music files on portable music players also dropped 21 points.”
“NPD said that contributing to part of those declines was Pandora’s successful move into automobiles,” reports CNET. “The research company said that 34 percent of Pandora’s users are now listening to the service in their cars.”

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