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RAIN Poll results: Should streaming subscriptions cost less?

survey checkbox poll 01 canvasRecent news that Apple is pushing back to labels about licensing fees, with the possible intent of lowering the monthly subscription cost of Beats Music, sets the stage for this week’s RAIN Poll.

We asked readers: Is Apple right? Would a lower subscription cost stimulate the subscription side of the streaming business? Or doesn’t it matter?

The result was conclusive in an unexpected way. Respondents were evenly split on whether music subscriptions should cost less. but far more readers selected the final option: “Whatever. I listen to free, ad-supported online radio.”

poll results subscription costs

That plurality sentiment certainly comports with how the market is moving. Spotify, for example, reports 50-million monthly listeners, and only 10-million of them pay for the subscription service. And in The Infinite Dial 2014 (Edison Research and Triton Digital), it was firmly established that most Americans think listening to commercials is a fair exchange for free streaming music.

Brad Hill

2 Comments

  1. There’s your proof that streamers aren’t making boatloads of money from subscriptions.

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