Apple's iTunes Radio Becomes Third Most Popular U.S. Music Streaming Service

[RobertMartens]

Not in Holland

I'm pretty sure Spotify is nr1 in Holland as the pictures shows out, and the rest falls very very deep when it comes to second place in the charts, including iTunes which I found one the worst music apps ever made.

Image

What about Andere dienst, they are doing well!

 

[Imory]

I don't get why Pandora and Spotify are so popular, they were innovators back then but they've been lagging behind - I'm surprised Rdio isn't even mentioned on that chart, too.

Unfortunately, it seems that Rdio is slowly dying. They've had some layoffs and budget cuts. Spotify is eating their market share which is a shame cause I've been disappointed by how slow Spotify are by implementing new/better features, unlike Rdio.

 

[kaltsasa]

I've used Pandora since the beginning of time so it's pretty in tune with what I like. I find it hard to believe that Rhapsody is ahead of TuneIn though I suppose they are different beasts. I've just never met anyone in the wild who uses Rhapsody but I've met plenty that use TuneIn for something, be it catch a game or a little Coast to Coast. Iheart radio is the same way, I want to catch x thing from y station that only streams on iHeart radio.

I've tried iTunes Radio. Whatever it uses to determine what to play does not work as well as Pandora. That may be because most of my Pandora stations have dozens or hundreds of likes and dislikes now.

 

[bbeagle]

I've never used Itunes Radio, seeing as it's not available in where I live. Nevertheless, correct me if I'm wrong but you can't listen to a specific song whenever you want, right?

Correct. iTunes Radio works like the Pandora model, not the Spotify model.

How is $120/yr expensive for listening to exactly what you want whenever and wherever you want? I honestly don't get the point of iTunes Radio. How is it different to Pandora and what does it do that other simplistic internet radios don't already offer?

iTunes Radio is very similar to Pandora - but by selecting the same artists, you get different songs because of the way each handles their algorithms.

Spotify is too expensive for me as well, because I do NOT want to pick exactly who I want to play, I _WANT_ to have a radio-type experience where I find new songs.

Pandora or iTunes Radio both work for me - both find different sets of songs I like. I switch between both now. A few days on one, a few days on the other, then buy songs I really like, which is about 5 a month (~ $75). Still cheaper than Spotify.

For example, classical music, I use this to study/work to. I have absolutely no clue as to what the music is or who makes it (besides generically knowing 'Beethoven' or 'Mozart'). I like to be able to just tune the radio and know there will be good classical music on there, and enjoy.

I respect your opinion too, just note that people listen to music differently.

 

[grblade]

This is a strangely worded poll. Instead of "percentage of Americans who used a steaming service," a more telling question would have been "among REGULAR streaming service users, which service was used." Pandora has been around a long time, so people polled who don't stream much at all or ever may have selected it as their top choice simply out of name recognition. Among the regular streaming service users I know, Pandora is on a downward trend.

 

[monaarts]

"based on a 2014 survey among 2,023 Americans aged 12 and older."

I hate surveys... Yes, let's use a survey of 2,023 people to resemble the population of 320 million people in the United States. :roll eyes:

Numbers can be skewed in any direction you want them to be.

 

[2457282]

why did i think Spotify would be number one for sure ^^ guess the US prefers to skip through random songs

I thought the same thing -- that Spotify was number 1 in the US. Now that I see that it is Pandora, it makes more sense why Apple to go that route versus Spotify. My wife still uses Spotify over iTunes Radio but she is slowly moving over. I have made the transition completely. Hope they can get the contracts in place to share the iLove with the rest of the world.

 

[reubs]

IHeartRadio should be completely left out since if you REALLY "heart radio" you wouldn't support anything related to Clear Channel.

 

[springsup]

I've always thought that iTunes Radio has the potential to be really big for Apple.

It's incredible to think that you can buy an iPhone, go to Music and have things to listen to there out-of-the-box.

Sure, they won't compete with Spotify with iTunes Radio - but for people who are occasional music listeners, it'll be something which can prompt them to listen to more of it. The name 'iTunes Radio' is very apt for what this is - it's not a replacement for buying songs from iTunes (i.e. it's not a clone of Spotify with an Apple logo on it); it's a music discovery tool to encourage people to listen to more music and increase the value of Apple's devices out-of-the-box.

I don't know why Apple didn't go down the road of cloning or acquiring Spotify, but they are clearly not pitching the service the same way Spotify do. iTunes Radio is a totally different thing, and it's a service which fits with the way Apple pitch all of their services - to increase the value of their devices.

Buy an iPhone, and you can instantly stream music from a personalised radio station right from the Music app. That's an easier, more seamless experience than you get from Android or Windows Phone devices.

Also -- even though they've made miserable progress on this front so far -- Apple has the ability to bring the service to more countries than their competitors. They really need to make better progress on that front, but that's a big theoretical advantage for iTunes Radio.

 

[Imory]

Correct. iTunes Radio works like the Pandora model, not the Spotify model.



iTunes Radio is very similar to Pandora - but by selecting the same artists, you get different songs because of the way each handles their algorithms.

Spotify is too expensive for me as well, because I do NOT want to pick exactly who I want to play, I _WANT_ to have a radio-type experience where I find new songs.

Pandora or iTunes Radio both work for me - both find different sets of songs I like. I switch between both now. A few days on one, a few days on the other, then buy songs I really like, which is about 5 a month (~ $75). Still cheaper than Spotify.

For example, classical music, I use this to study/work to. I have absolutely no clue as to what the music is or who makes it (besides generically knowing 'Beethoven' or 'Mozart'). I like to be able to just tune the radio and know there will be good classical music on there, and enjoy.

I respect your opinion too, just note that people listen to music differently.

Well you make a very good point. Finding new music which you enjoy is hard. Spotify has a radio-like feature, but it leaves a lot to be desired. I have probably 400-600 songs on Spotify atm. Buying all of them individually would cost me a lot and that library is constantly expanding. I would obviously prefer the best of both worlds which would be Spotify with a good radio experience.

 

[bbeagle]

I hate surveys... Yes, let's use a survey of 2,023 people to resemble the population of 320 million people in the United States. :roll eyes:

You need to read up on statistics. I know, it seems at first to make no sense at all, I thought the same way originally - but if you read up on statistics you'll understand that getting the correct sample size for the correct results is often less than 1% of the group you are studying.

 

[EvilEvil]

Pandora sucks. SomaFM for life!

 

[saxofunk]

#netneutrality

Looks like evidence that Pandora is using a disproportionate amount of internets and needs to be charged accordingly by all of the poor ISPs on whose backs Pandora is riding.

 

[Apple_Robert]

I like iTunes Radio. The only complaint I have this far is, having to hear the same songs over in a short time frame.

 

[Derekeys]

Well you make a very good point. Finding new music which you enjoy is hard. Spotify has a radio-like feature, but it leaves a lot to be desired. I have probably 400-600 songs on Spotify atm. Buying all of them individually would cost me a lot and that library is constantly expanding. I would obviously prefer the best of both worlds which would be Spotify with a good radio experience.

Exactly. I find it odd that more people don't use Spotify. But that seems to me to be the central issue of this discussion, the way to discover and listen to music is as varied as musical taste. At the end of the day, some people prefer to have all their music selected for them, and some people prefer the opposite. I personally like a hybrid, to be listening on Spotify Radio and when I hear a song I'd love to hear again, I just star it real quick and can easily find it later to listen to on my time. I think Spotify offers the best of both worlds, even if the radio portion is lacking somewhat. The free version still allows shuffled playlists but those songs are the ones you've chosen, so the comments about it being too expensive confuses me. Not to mention the desktop version allows you to choose the exact songs you want to your tailored playlists and flawless syncing to your phone. What's not to love?

 

[neuropsychguy]

1. Takes too much effort to build a specially catered playlist.

Pandora's algorithms are second to none in mine and many people's experience. And they've developed a reputation around this. I rarely felt the need to skip.

Still I have dropped it, for iTunes Radio...

I concur completely. Pandora's matching algorithms are fantastic once you spend a little bit of time training, even then, I've had stations require almost no training to be a great range of what I enjoy listening to.

On the other hand, iTunes Radio does a mediocre job. The thing that bugs me the most is when I say don't play a song on a station and it goes ahead and plays it again, sometimes multiple times in a row. It will improve and I will use it more over time as Apple works out the bugs but for now, Pandora is what I use the most because it works the best.

 

[mazz0]

Quick offtopic question: does iTunes radio download and buffer a selection of songs so that when you go into a low signal strength (or no 3/4G) area it doesn't cut out? iTunes in the cloud cuts out for me quite often.

 

[Chatter]

"based on a 2014 survey among 2,023 Americans aged 12 and older."

I hate surveys... Yes, let's use a survey of 2,023 people to resemble the population of 320 million people in the United States. :roll eyes:

Numbers can be skewed in any direction you want them to be.

Stats101 my friend. Or wikipedia this. May not sound "right" but it makes sense.

 

[gnasher729]

Create a US itunes account, problem solved.

Lots of problems created, actually. Starting with finding a way to pay for it, more than dubious legality, Apple's ability to close it down at any time, the trouble caused by having two accounts + the huge selection of Belgian artists on the US store.

 

[Ludatyk]

I have iTunes Match... I have yet tried out iTunes Radio. Definitely not part of the percentage of users.

 

[HowEver]

Anyone can create a US iTunes account.

Wow, I hope no one judges Canadians based on:

Why is Pandora not available in Canada??

This country is run by IDIOTS!!!!!

 

[Bare]

1. Takes too much effort to build a specially catered playlist.

...

2. Spotify is incredibly expensive. Even for people who pay the 'Apple Tax'. And have the ability and time to dedicate to building their own playlists... In order to build a playlist from songs and store for offline usage on your mobile, Spotify wants $120/yr... and you lose it all if you ever stop paying.

I think you're not Spotifying correctly.

1. Creating playlists is super easy. You can either star a song quickly and listen to your starred tracks, or have them there for you to add to playlists later. Or, you can easily be listening to whatever song -- either using their Radio feature or listening to an album you have selected to listen to -- and click "Add to playlist" and pick whatever playlist you want to add it to. It's two clicks.

2. $120 a year is too expensive for you? Buying a song on iTunes is about a buck, and I probably listen to at least 120 tracks on Spotify a day. Especially when you think about when people used to, you know, buy an album, $120 gets you 10-12 albums. You only listen to 10-12 albums per year?

But okay, let's say that is too expensive for you: you can use Spotify for FREE. In that case, it has ads just like Pandora or iTunes Radio, but at least you still have the option to pick exactly what you want to listen to OR use it Pandora-style. Is free too much for you?

I understand the statistics used to create this survey, but I still question the results. I know a lot of people that use Spotify. There's a music series going on in my area and people getting ready to go to the evening's concert talk about getting ready to see that artist by listening to them on Spotify. You can't even really do stuff like that with Pandora and iTunes Radio -- create a station based on that artist, and maybe 20% of the songs that pop up are actually by that artist.

 

[SvP]

Was that you guys? I thought they were from Holland. We named a tunnel after them.

No, you didn't actually. (not sure if you're serious, if you're not, you succeeded). The holland tunnel was named after it's engineer, not the country. We named half of New York tho, for example "brooklyn" after "breukelen". Fun fact: the first president that was born in the US (Martin van Buren, 8th president) was of dutch descent, and had dutch as his primary language.

The country is named "The Netherlands" and "Holland" is a province in the netherlands. The people of the netherlands are called "The Dutch". Some of the plebeians call the dutch "hollanders", and the country "holland". They're idiots.

We did all that, and still no love from Apple (more likely no love from the media licensing companies).

 

[Mockenrue]

"based on a 2014 survey among 2,023 Americans aged 12 and older."

I hate surveys... Yes, let's use a survey of 2,023 people to resemble the population of 320 million people in the United States. :roll eyes:

You'd be surprised how small of a sample you need for accurate survey data. A sample size calculator shows 99% confidence level if you survey 1,979 people in a total population of 320 million (with the most conservative, worst-case settings). Increasing the sample size beyond 2,023 wouldn't change the number, so research companies have no reason to do it.

 

[vpndev]

grrrr

And iTunes Radio has to get rid of the
"You're listening to iTunes Radio" message.

Especially when it repeats six or seven times.

Grrr