110 Million More Music Streamers Than Ten Years Ago
According to newly released findings from MusicWatch’s 2020 Annual Music Study, more Americans streamed music in 2020 than ever before. A record 209 million internet users aged 13 or older experienced music streaming. Streaming could source from pure play services such as Pandora, Spotify or Apple Music, or from watching or listening to music videos on YouTube. Ten years ago, in 2011, there were 99 million streamers, mostly enjoying Pandora and YouTube. That was also the year that Spotify launched in the US. Back then iTunesRadio didn’t exist, nor did Amazon’s streaming offerings. Alexa wasn’t around to suggest what to listen to and for the few that listened to streaming in the car, it was likely thanks to a tethered aux cord. iPods were still more popular than iPhones in 2011. All that has changed over the past decade, with smarter cars, smarter watches, smarter speakers and smarter TV’s- all adorned with music apps.
This December marks 20 years since the launch of the original music streaming service. Remember listen.com, which became Rhapsody? We’ve come a long way baby!
