The US are known for being huge streaming fans. Whether it’s music, TV, film, you name it, they have streaming services for it. In fact, it could be argued a lot of VPNs have picked up in popularity due to the wide variety of entertainment that can be found in America that isn’t accessible to the rest of the world.
It’s possible America sit apart from other places across the world due to the sheer large number of options they have readily available. This could play a big part into why certain stores are more popular than others. Think about it, while they do have Netflix, they also have websites like Hulu and Sling. Other places aren’t so lucky with their varied choices. It’s sort of Netflix or nothing. Perhaps they have a similar outlook when it comes to music streaming. Maybe there’s so much choice. Or, perhaps it comes down to the well known names. Apple Music surely have to be up there. After all, American’s love all things Apple, right?
What streaming stores are most popular in America?
As you can see from this study conducted in 2021, YouTube proves to be the most popular place for Americans to stream music from. Is this perhaps because YouTube is an all-rounder. They can offer music at a high quality, but also TV and videos. This potentially makes them stand out from others who cannot offer moving image. It makes sense why people may prefer to even pay for a service that can offer a bit of everything. YouTube was around first too. Before we had apps like Spotify, we had YouTube. It’s what we all know. Even if it wasn’t somewhere you went to for music back in the day, you likely watched funny clips on the platform.
It’s still miles ahead of the next on the list though, which is Spotify. It’s quite surprising as in 2019 Apple Music were still ahead of Spotify for Americans. Perhaps it has something to do with Spotify’s giant push at making their platform more accessible. Not only have they added features like lyrics and cheaper subscriptions, but they’ve also made their Spotify for Artists features available for more people. They seem to be striving towards making Spotify the perfect music tool for everyone. Catering to all budgets, wants and needs. However, if you take a look at the graph below, you’ll see how they sat in 2018-2019 within the American markets.
Spotify leading the way as Apple Music decline
YouTube is at the top spot, but if we take that out of the picture and focus on sound only platforms, then we have Spotify in the lead. It’s made a complete turnaround from 2019. Not that long ago Apple Music was the most favoured music streaming platform in America. However, look at the first chart and notice just how low Apple Music now is. It’s not even just short of Spotify. In fact, there are multiple other music stores that are preferred by Americans before they’ll choose Apple Music.
How has a store that was once the most popular, now become one of the least popular on the list? Is it because they aren’t moving with the times in the way other platforms are? Spotify are popular with their Podcasts. Potentially this could be impacting people’s decisions on where to turn to? There are so many reasons why people may choose one over the other. However, an entire country changing choices so rapidly and completely replacing one platform essentially is quite drastic.
