An ideal audience for any podcast, music streaming, or audiobook service is the listener who is driving in their car, consistently committing their time to the service as part of their daily journeys. For a driver, audio content is served easily with few distractions and makes productive use of time spent in the car.
With companies racing to claim mindshare with drivers, Drivemode looked at anonymized driver behavior of Android users to find the music services that are winning the audio battle.
“How drivers access their music and other audio content is helpful information for app developers, marketers, and anyone trying to reach or understand drivers while in the car,” said Yo Koga, co-founder and CEO of Drivemode. “We are excited to be an ongoing resource regarding driving trends and behavior.”
Drivemode analyzed more than 1.6 million user sessions when a music player app was launched, among 109,337 unique users. The data was collected from January 1, 2017 through December 31, 2017, across 50 states plus Washington, D.C. The rankings below show the percentage of user sessions that each music player app was used by U.S. Android drivers in 2017.
National Rankings
- Spotify: 24.71% (401,296 sessions)
- Google Play Music: 24.69% (401,002 sessions)
- Pandora: 14.26% (231,539 sessions)
- Amazon Music: 8.25% (133,981 sessions)
- Samsung: 3.59% (58,330 sessions)
Spotify just barely pulled ahead of Google Play Music in actual music sessions, though Google Play ranked #1 in 27 states and Spotify ranked #1 in 18 states.The states in which Spotify is the most popular contributed more overall music sessions than the Google Play states, hence why Spotify reigns supreme across the U.S. even though it’s preferred in fewer states. Together these two apps are making up almost half of all music player usage in the car. For every 50 car trips taken, Spotify is used on 12 trips, Google Play Music is used on 12 trips, Pandora is used on 7 trips, Amazon on 4, and a variety of other apps are used on the remaining 15 trips.
#1 Ranked Music Players By State
Google Play Music #1 in 27 States
Spotify #1 in 18 States
Pandora #1 in 5 States
#2 Ranked Music Player By State
Google Play Music #2 in 18 States
Spotify #2 in 26 States
Pandora #2 in 5 States
Samsung Music #2 in 2 States
“With Google Play Music including a local MP3 player function and being pre-installed on Android devices, Spotify’s success is impressive. It’s possible that some of Spotify’s driver-friendly offline features, such as downloading playlists, contribute to that success,” said Koga. “Our data shows that in 2017 Spotify and Google Play Music battled head to head, but Pandora continues to gain ground on the two larger services.”
New England is eclectic in its streaming music tastes, with Pandora on top in RI, CT and VT. The West is Spotify country, as the app claims 8 of the 13 Western states. The Midwest is the land of Google Music, which earned 9 of the 12 states. The first and second rankings are listed for every state in the chart that follows at the end of this report. While the music giants dominated the top of this chart, there were a few smaller services and players that captured users in some states showing that it is possible to get some saturation even if you aren’t Google or Amazon.
Additional Audio Apps In Top 5
Audible
#3 Alabama, 12% of sessions
#3 Oklahoma, 13% of sessions
#5 Connecticut, 3% of sessions
#5 in Utah, 2% of sessions
BlackPlayer Music Player
#5 Nebraska, 6% of sessions
IHeartRadio
#5 Georgia 3% of sessions
#5 Kansas, 3% of sessions
#5 Kentucky, 4% of sessions
#5 Tennessee, 2% of sessions
Music Flow Player
#5 Indiana, 4% of sessions
#5 Louisiana, 4% of sessions
#5 Virginia, 6% of sessions
Slacker Radio
#5 Oregon, 4% of sessions
Top Two Ranked Music Players By State
| State | Region | Most Used App | Percentage of Sessions in State |
Second Most Used App | Percentage of Sessions in State |
| Alabama | South | Spotify | 25% | Google Play Music | 18% |
| Alaska | West | Google Play Music | 39% | Samsung Music | 36% |
| Arizona | West | Spotify | 26% | Google Play Music | 24% |
| Arkansas | South | Google Play Music | 33% | Spotify | 17% |
| California | West | Spotify | 27% | Google Play Music | 22% |
| Colorado | West | Spotify | 27% | Google Play Music | 22% |
| Connecticut | Northeast | Pandora | 27% | Spotify | 24% |
| Delaware | South | Spotify | 22% | Google Play Music | 20% |
| District of Columbia | South | Google Play Music | 28% | Spotify | 19% |
| Florida | South | Spotify | 25% | Google Play Music | 24% |
| Georgia | South | Spotify | 27% | Google Play Music | 22% |
| Hawaii | West | Spotify | 43% | Pandora | 18% |
| Idaho | West | Google Play Music | 25% | Spotify | 21% |
| Illinois | Midwest | Google Play Music | 28% | Spotify | 27% |
| Indiana | Midwest | Google Play Music | 33% | Spotify | 20% |
| Iowa | Midwest | Google Play Music | 32% | Spotify | 19% |
| Kansas | Midwest | Google Play Music | 31% | Spotify | 20% |
| Kentucky | South | Google Play Music | 24% | Spotify | 24% |
| Louisiana | South | Google Play Music | 23% | Pandora | 22% |
| Maine | Northeast | Google Play Music | 29% | Spotify | 18% |
| Maryland | South | Google Play Music | 30% | Spotify | 17% |
| Massachusetts | Northeast | Google Play Music | 33% | Spotify | 18% |
| Michigan | Midwest | Google Play Music | 26% | Spotify | 26% |
| Minnesota | Midwest | Google Play Music | 29% | Spotify | 24% |
| Mississippi | South | Sirius | 18% | Pandora | 14% |
| Missouri | Midwest | Google Play Music | 28% | Spotify | 20% |
| Montana | West | Spotify | 24% | Google Play Music | 23% |
| Nebraska | Midwest | Spotify | 25% | Google Play Music | 23% |
| Nevada | West | Spotify | 31% | Google Play Music | 27% |
| New Hampshire | Northeast | Spotify | 44% | Pandora | 23% |
| New Jersey | Northeast | Spotify | 33% | Google Play Music | 24% |
| New Mexico | West | Spotify | 36% | Google Play Music | 18% |
| New York | Northeast | Google Play Music | 30% | Spotify | 25% |
| North Carolina | South | Google Play Music | 23% | Spotify | 22% |
| North Dakota | Midwest | Pandora | 26% | Google Play Music | 25% |
| Ohio | Midwest | Google Play Music | 27% | Spotify | 23% |
| Oklahoma | South | Spotify | 22% | Google Play Music | 22% |
| Oregon | West | Google Play Music | 26% | Spotify | 22% |
| Pennsylvania | Northeast | Google Play Music | 23% | Spotify | 23% |
| Rhode Island | Northeast | Pandora | 34% | Spotify | 22% |
| South Carolina | South | Google Play Music | 26% | Spotify | 25% |
| South Dakota | Midwest | Pandora | 34% | Google Play Music | 20% |
| Tennessee | South | Google Play Music | 22% | Spotify | 21% |
| Texas | South | Spotify | 24% | Google Play Music | 22% |
| Utah | West | Google Play Music | 31% | Spotify | 17% |
| Vermont | Northeast | Pandora | 63% | Samsung Music | 11% |
| Virginia | South | Spotify | 22% | Google Play Music | 21% |
| Washington | West | Google Play Music | 23% | Spotify | 20% |
| West Virginia | South | Google Play Music | 40% | Pandora | 20% |
| Wisconsin | Midwest | Google Play Music | 32% | Spotify | 25% |
| Wyoming | West | Spotify | 26% | Google Play Music | 25% |
ABOUT DRIVEMODE
Drivemode enables smarter, safer, connected driving in any vehicle. Founded in 2014 by entrepreneurs from Zipcar and Tesla Motors, Drivemode is working to fundamentally change the way consumers use technology in the car. Drivemode transforms a user’s phone into a car’s central computing device allowing voice-to-text messaging, music player overlay on navigation, “Do Not Disturb” mode, message auto-reply, location sharing, and personalized travel recommendations. Their automotive-grade interface is designed and developed to adhere to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration safety guidelines for driving apps.