Music Machinery

Here’s a quick tour of google trends output for a number of music services with an eye for identifying which are growing and which are shrinking. Google trends tracks search interest.  The number 100 represents the peak search interest in these graphs.

Updated (1) (2) (3) – added a number of new charts. Updated (4) – added a summary list

iTunes – ITunes looks relatively flat since 2010. Perhaps things will change with their Pandora competitor to be launched this month.

last.fm – Peaked in 2009, has now fallen back to where it was in 2006. The golden age of last.fm is over, sad to say.

Spotify – steady growth since launch in 2009

Pandora – steady growth since 2006. Perhaps leveling off.

Rhapsody  – slow but steady shrinking interest

Rdio – steady growth since 2011 launch, steep growth in the last year

Deezer – steady shrinkage since 2009

Grooveshark – peaked in 2012, now shrinking

siriusxm – strong growth since 2011

iheartradio – strong growth since 2011

Google Music – slow steady growth

Slacker  – slight decline in interest since its peak in 2009

Soundcloud – strong increase since 2009

Youtube  – Youtube has always been one of the most popular destinations for music listeners

Songza – After a pivot in 2011, very strong growth

8tracks – strong growth since 2011

Bandcamp

Turntable – after the initial buzz, interest in turntable has declined dramatically.

Mixcloud – strong steady growth since 2009

MOG – peaked in 2012

Jango – peaked in January of this year, but have since dropped to 2010 interest levels

Playlist.com – peaked in 2009, now at its lowest interest since 2007.

soundhound – slightly off from its 2012 peak interest.

shazam – strong steady, rising interest

Beatport – holding steady at 2009 levels

Muve – steady growth since 2011

The Hype Machine – six years of decline

ex.fm – a jagged two year climb

Amazon MP3 – growing until 2011, when it flattens out, and perhaps drops a bit.

Walmart Music – at its lowest point ever

Yahoo Music – Once the biggest destination on the web, now at its lowest point.

Myspace Music – steady decline until there’s nothing left

Facebook Music – the only service where the downward trend started before the product was announced.

Twitter Music –  perhaps the strangest graph at all. Lots of excitement at launch and then, almost instantly … meh.

Zune – bursts of activity with every Zune update, but a steady decline to irrelevance.

xbox music –  modest decline since the October 2012 release, but too early to tell.

Radionomy – I’d never heard of them before, but they are gaining interest, especially in France.

Sony’s Music Unlimited – growing since 2010

Radio.com – Waning interest since 2009

Of course, these search trends are not the same as having an actual measure of activity. Millions of people play music on Spotify or iTunes every day without performing a search. However, until we can get raw user numbers from every music service, this is probably about the closest we can get to understanding which services are growing and which are shrinking.

Leave a comment if you think there are some music listening services that I’ve missed that I should include.