Apple is the top platform for US adults who pay for music content online, ahead of others such as Pandora and Spotify, according to a study from PayPal [pdf]. Among the US music consumers surveyed, 37% cited either Apple iTunes (30%, the single leading platform) or Apple Music (7%) as their preferred platform, while Pandora picked up 20% of the respondents.
Spotify (13%) was next, closely followed by Google Music (12%).
The study notes that, overall, paid downloads are more popular than streaming. But there’s an important distinction to make between age groups: Millennials (18-34) were slightly more likely to pay to stream (63%) than to download (60%) while older listeners showed a clear preference for downloads (70%) over paying to stream (51%).
In contrasting the preferences of music listeners with e-book readers, the survey found that music listeners were almost three times more likely than e-book readers to prefer to subscribe to a service for their content as opposed to owning or renting it.
Nielsen recently reported that streaming in 2016 became the single largest music consumption format in the US, with preferences shifting away from downloads. Early last year, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) found that streaming had become the top source of music industry revenues in 2015.
About the Data: The results are from on a survey, conducted in partnership with SuperData Research, of 1,000 online adults in the US who pay for digital content online, including streaming subscriptions and paid downloads for music, movies and TV series.
