Webcast listening in July slipped downward by 4% month-over-month, compared to June’s numbers in Triton Digital’s Webcast Metrics monthly report. Perennial leader Pandora likewise dipped by the same percentage amount in the June-July reckoning. Spotify, always in second place on the Ranker, maintained flat listening from the previous month.
As always in RAIN News tracking, we use Average Active Sessions (AAS) as the key metric, through the lens of 6:00am – 12:00am listening, Monday through Sunday.
Continuing a 2016 trend, the year-over-year comparison shows strong gain — 13% more stream listening than July 2015 for the group as a whole. The individual leader in year-over-year listening growth, measured as a percentage of Average Active Sessions, was AccuRadio with an eye-popping 68% increase. (AccuRadio CEO Kurt Hanson is the Founder and Publisher of RAIN News.)
Looking at the year-to-date comparison, stream listening grew 4% from January to July. Pandora participated in the growth by 2%, while Spotify jumped 15%. (Spotify listening has grown 39% year-over-year, measured by AAS.) Listening sessions at iHeartRadio dropped 5% compared to January.
Triton measured listening on the two major mobile platforms, iOS and Android, at 72% combined. Interestingly, while mobile gets the most use, it doesn’t get the most time, by a wide margin. Triton’s Average Time Spent Listening metric shows three-quarters of an hour on mobile, and over 90 minutes on desktop — perhaps reflecting more settled listening on work computers.
Below is the historical chart of the Ranker leaders dating back to September, 2009, showing the trajectory Pandora, Spotify, and iHeartRadio:
Here is the graphic year-over-year comparison of the entire Top 20 group: