New study measures mobile music listening; it’s mostly free, but with a surprise

AYTM Market Research released a survey of mobile music consumers, which quantifies the devices they use, their listening sources, and whether they pay.

aytm 01As covered by eMarketer, most of the survey’s results are unsurprising. The main bullets:

  • Just over half of respondents listen to music on the go, at least “sometimes.” Thirty percent never do.
  • Mobile music listening happens mainly on smartphones (60%), but also significantly on MP3 players (48%). Tablets, with their awkward bulk, represent less than a quarter of mobile listening.
  • Seventy-two percent of mobile-app users who do listen to music, access free-listening services.
  • Nearly half of those who do pay for subscription music buy into more than one service. That cohort is 12.6% of all mobile-app music listeners.

That last point is the surprise. We’re glad we’re not the only ones who carry around multiple subscriptions, and are startled by the large percentage of that group.

The survey sample size is 400 respondents. The sample size of mobile users who use service apps (as opposed to only listening to owned music collections stored on a mobile device) is 166.

Brad Hill