Apple iTunes Radio Debuts On The Infinite Dial Survey, People Still Prefer Pandora

In September, Apple launched the iPhone 5s, iPhone 5c, and iOS 7 all to great fanfare. Six months later, a new report shows that iTunes Radio, the radio service that launched alongside iOS 7, has become the third most used online radio service in the United States. However, Pandora internet radio is the heavy favorite across the nation, taking more market share than the next six radio services combined. Pandora comes in at 31 percent, while iHeartRadio takes nine percent and iTunes Radio takes eight percent. Spotify, for all of the social media buzz it generated since its mid-2011 launch both positive and negative, took fourth behind iTunes Radio with only six percent of the market share.

The survey was conducted between the months of January and February 2014 over the telephone “using random digit dialing techniques.” The percentages quoted on the graph above are for the complete survey, which took answers from respondents ages 12 and up. However what may be more telling is the coveted age range of 18-34, which was tracked separately.

People who listened to online music services in the last month ages 18-34 showed a different figure. Pandora is still the heavy favorite taking almost half of the listeners, 47 percent. But both iHeartRadio and Spotify took 11 percent, topping iTunes Radio’s 10 percent market share. Although, iHeartRadio and iTunes Radio have larger percentages than Spotify when that age range is increased to 18-49. Meaning that Spotify has a heavier hold on the 18-34 demographic than the other two services.

The survey questioned people on whether they have listened to a music streaming service, and if so, which ones. Some respondents answered with multiple services, so the data reflects that some listeners use both Pandora and another service. “At least one report has suggested that 92 percent of iTunes Radio listeners also find time for Pandora,” stated the report.

The survey is part of a longer study that has been active since 1998, called The Infinite Dial. Other information gleaned from this study include statistics about smartphone usage and ownership. “More than six in ten (61 percent) now own a smartphone; that number increases to approximately eight in ten age 18-34,” states the report. It also shows that social media usage adoption has slowed in the last year. “Facebook usage is flat compared to 2013, at 58%, while Twitter grew slightly from 15% to 16% year-over-year.”

Possibly the oddest fact is that Snapchat, the 10-second image sharing app, has almost half of users age 12-24 using the imaging app. “Snapchat is now one of the leading social networking services; 53% of mobile phone users are familiar with Snapchat, while 13% of Americans 12+ — and 46% of 12-24 year-olds — use the image sharing service.”