Providing market intelligence for more than 35 years

In The News

Two-Thirds of U.S. Homes Stream Audio Over Broadband, With Amazon in a Surprising Lead

Among paid subscription streaming services, Amazon Prime Music leads with 9.76 million U.S. subscribers, or 10 percent of broadband households, followed by Pandora One at 6 percent, Spotify Premium at 4 percent, SiriusXM Streaming at 4 percent, iTunes Match at 2 percent and Google Play Music at 2 percent. All other paid services were at 1 percent or less.

The report draws on surveys of 10,000 U.S. broadband households. The surveys took place prior to the June 30 launch of Apple Music. Parks Associates provided survey respondents with a list of paid music streaming subscription services and asked them to select the services to which they subscribe. Parks Associates didn’t ask about specific free streaming services.

Amazon’s predominance among streaming services, at least in terms of sheer subscriber numbers, highlights the music industry’s struggles in persuading listeners to pay for streaming. “The big question moving forward is if streaming music providers can achieve the scale they have been seeking to balance their ad revenue with paid subscription revenues, all while striking fair licensing agreements with artists,” says Glenn Hower, a research analyst with Parks Associates.

From the article "Two-Thirds of U.S. Homes Stream Audio Over Broadband, With Amazon in a Surprising Lead" by Marc Hogan.

Previously In The News

SVOD MARKET: Survival of the Fittest

Perhaps the bigger surprise is that more haven’t exited the market — yet. “We’re finding that there are many services that are … getting enough subscribers just to be able to be sustainable,” Brett Sa...

‘Subscription Fatigue’ Not Slowing OTT Proliferation After All: Research Firm

The popular “subscription fatigue” narrative is that consumers have topped out on the number of over-the-top services they’re willing to pay for and are now in pruning mode. But Parks Associates—wh...

Home, Where the Smart Is

While the home is shaping up to be the battleground, cable operators and other service providers are jostling to position themselves as the aggregation and management point of this emerging class of s...

Netflix Prods HBO to Go 'Binge-First' With New Seasons of Original Shows

No longer would HBO be reliant on a broadband operator to deliver Game of Thrones, The Sopranos or Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. (HBO does distribute directly to consumers via streaming service...