At a recent event in San Francisco, Apple shared that its latest service iTunes Radio is used by more than 20 million people. In addition, about 1 billion songs have already been listened on Apple’s radio.
These statistics are quite impressive given the fact that the company launched iTunes Radio a little over a month ago, on September 18th. In addition, many music artists quickly responded to the release of the new music streaming service. For instance, Katy Perry and Jared Leto from 30 Seconds to Mars became DJs for a day because of the service. Both created music tracks for iTunes Radio stations. Also, singer Justin Timberlake picked Apple’s radio service to premiere his latest album The 20/20 Experience Part 2.
However, a new report has found that iTunes Radio’s biggest competitor still enjoys more popularity. Currently, Pandora has about 72.2 million listeners. The report also reveals that only 40% of iOS 7 users have tried out iTunes Radio. Just 12.6% of iOS users split their time on Pandora and iTunes radio. The survey adds that barely 2% of all iOS users have decided to give up Pandora for Apple’s new service.
Still, it should be noted, that iTunes Radio has been on the marker for just a little over a month. Most importantly, the service is presently available only in the U.S. Nevertheless, its listeners’ base is estimated at about 24% of Pandora’s. In addition, Pandora was launched exactly 13 years ago and it is currently available not only in the U.S. but also in Australia and New Zealand.
The picture is expected to quickly change at the beginning of next year. That is because Apple announced its plans to introduce iTunes Radio in more countries. Starting early 2014, the company will launch its music streaming service in the U.K., Canada, Australia and New Zealand. It is also said that Apple will introduce iTunes Radio in a number of Nordic countries.
Therefore, it is too early to make any conclusions on the iTunes-Pandora rivalry.
