Amazon Music is on the Rise as Americans Prefer Echo Smart Speakers: Report
Amazon Echo smart speakers are twice as popular as Google Home, according to the new Infinite Dial 2020 survey by Edison Research and Triton Digital. The smart speaker preference combined with the extent of Amazon Prime membership is leading to a boost for Amazon Music as a streaming service.
Smart Speakers All Over
The Infinite Dial report is based on a massive survey of Americans 12 and older. It has been published for 22 years and is often considered one of the best measures of the media and technology industries. And those numbers paint a positive picture for Amazon in particular. The 10% difference in ownership between Echo and Google Home, with Apple HomePod scraping 1%, shows which one you’re more likely to see in someone’s home. Of course, smart speakers aren’t the whole picture. 62% of Americans have used a voice assistant of some kind, pointing to the value of smartphones, cars, and other forms of voice assistant access. But, the smart speaker choice can impact how and what other tech people use.
Listening to Amazon
An apt example is which streaming music services people listen to. A quarter of the U.S. has listened to Pandora over the course of a month, the same goes for Spotify. Amazon lags behind at just 14%, barely beating Apple Music and iHeartRadio. But, those numbers belie the trend over the last year. Amazon Music gained two percentage points from 2019, but Pandora hemorrhaged 6%, while iHeartRadio fell by 2% and dropped two places in the ranking. Spotify did better, rising by 1%, but Apple Music stayed entirely static. Amazon Music did very well in 2019 all told.
There’s no definitive reason as to why, but considering Amazon doesn’t have a line of smartphone, it’s probable that the spread of Amazon Echo smart speakers accompanied by the Alexa voice assistant had something to do with it. And there’s no doubt that some people use Amazon Music and buy Echo smart speakers because of special deals for Amazon Prime members. According to the survey, 42% of the population of the U.S. is an Amazon Prime member. That gives 118 million Americans and their families access to 14,000 Amazon Music songs, even if they don’t pay for the premium version. Amazon’s ability to leverage different products boosts all of them. Google and Apple have their own unique advantages, but the Infinite Dial report does suggest that Amazon will continue to be the overwhelming winner in this space for some time to come.
Follow @voicebotai Follow @erichschwartz
Overall Consumer Voice Assistant Use Rises Deceptively Quickly: Report
