In a recent research, Android driving app Drivemode analyzed 1.6 million music listening classes on its platform among greater than 109,000 distinctive users over the course of 2017, and located some compelling regional and demographic variations in the forms of music providers that come out on top. On a national level, Spotify and Google Play Music had been neck-and-neck, every accounting for around 24.7 percent of music sessions on Drivemode (and collectively comprising almost half of all music listening activity total). Pandora was a relatively distant third, accounting for 14.Three % of classes, adopted by Amazon Music at 8.3 percent and Samsung Music at 3.6 p.c. The rankings of Pandora and Samsung Music are notably stunning, albeit for opposite reasons. One might need anticipated Pandora to be further ahead: the corporate was by far the earliest player in integrated auto partnerships, first hiring a vp of automotive enterprise growth (George Lynch) in 2010. In distinction, Spotify didn’t hire its analogous exec (Jonathan Tarlton) till 2014, and no car company earlier than SEAT had even thought to achieve out to Shazam. But as 2021 Ford Bronco Sport Badlands suggests, Pandora has since lost its first-mover advantage and relinquished management to Spotify and Google Play Music, at the least amongst Android drivers. Although the Infinite Dial study discovered that Pandora has the strongest model recognition of any streaming service within the U.S., Spotify has a handful of offline options which might be friendlier to drivers, akin to the flexibility to obtain playlists. Google Play also consists of an area MP3-participant functionality appropriate for offline listening, and evidently has the benefit of coming pre-put in on Android units. That is where Samsung Music -- which has no online streaming component, however reasonably supports digital file formats like MP3, WMA, AAC and FLAC -- comes in as a surprising winner among Android users. According to the Drivemode research, not solely did Samsung Music place fifth overall in 2017, but the app was additionally the second most-fashionable app in Alaska and Vermont, beating out the majority of streaming-focused incumbents in these states. “Samsung’s MP3 offering was available earlier than Google Play Music launched, and there are nonetheless lots of people sticking with that product,” Yo Koga, CEO of Drivemode, tells Billboard. “Those customers are usually older, and haven’t fairly made the transfer to streaming. Different purportedly smaller providers emerged in the top five in sure regions of the U.S.: Audible positioned in the top 5 in Alabama, Connecticut, Oklahoma, and Utah, while LG’s hi-fi Music Stream Participant app was ranked fifth in Indiana, Louisiana and Virginia. Even Spotify and 2022 Mini Cooper Review , which were tied for first on a national degree, exhibited vital regional variations across the nation. Whereas Spotify was the highest music service in eight out of thirteen Western states, Google Play Music beat Spotify to the punch in 9 out of twelve states in the Midwest. Pandora truly had a slight edge within the Northeast, ranking hottest in three out of 9 states in that area.