DUH Alert: Most Internet Radio Listeners Prefer Free Music

Posted 09/27/2011 at 10:37am | by Brad Chacos

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More and more streaming music services are launching bigger, more badass and – more importantly – free ad-supported versions these days, whether you’re talking about the gas can-like offering of MOG, Pandora’s ditching of its 40 hour listening limit, or Spotify’s awesome new 6 months free offer (although requiring new users to have a Facebook account flat-out sucks). But are customers really clamoring for free radio? Myxer – itself a popular (and free) mobile music provider – recently polled its listeners, and the results are overwhelming; few people actually pay to listen to tunes online.

Of the 1,188 people who participated in Myxer’s survey, a full 78 percent said that they only listen to free music online, and 63 percent identified “free music” as the single most important feature a streaming radio service can offer. Sorry to break the bad news, Rdio. Myxer then asked the paying 22 percent who they forked their cash over to; half of them – or 11 percent of all streaming music users surveyed – paid for a Pandora subscription. Rhapsody earned premium subscription love from 6 percent of all listeners polled, while RDIO, Spotify, Napster, MOG and Zunepass each nabbed about 1 percent of the pie.

If you’re a stat freak, check out the entire Myxer Boombox survey; it contains all kinds of interesting figures.