Source: Statista. Click to enlarge.
FORTUNE — Less than six months after Apple (AAPL) launched its music streaming and recommendation service, iTunes Radio has taken the No. 3 spot in the crowded U.S. market, according to Edison’s monthly radio report.
Pandora (P), with 80 million U.S. users and a 31% share, still dominates the field, and iHeart Radio, with a 9% share, is No. 2. But Apple’s entry, with more than 20 million users, is growing fast, according to a report Monday in Electronista that predicts iTunes Radio will overtake iHeart before the end of the year.
“This spells trouble for Spotify,” Electronista suggests. Spotify is bigger than iTunes in Europe but has had trouble gaining traction in the U.S.
“People want to own their music,” Steve Jobs famously declared in 2007, explaining why Apple was willing to sell iTunes songs through its archrival Microsoft (MSFT)
but had no interest in getting into the subscription-based music streaming business. “Never say never,” he added, “but customers don’t seem to be interested in it. The subscription model has failed so far.”
The next year, Pandora and Spotify both set out to prove him wrong.
LINK: Statista: iTunes Radio already 3rd most popular music streamer
