Survey Says: Thumbplay’s Streaming Music Service Taking a Bite out of P2P Music Sharing

In a survey that is sure to please music industry execs and RIAA cronies everywhere, Thumbplay has found that 70 percent of its users have sworn off P2P file sharing as their go-to method of music collecting. This speaks to the volume of traffic streaming music services are directing away from “illegal” file sharing and towards more legitimate means of enjoying your favorite tunes.

The survey was conducted among Thumbplay users with a sample size of 500enough to provide meaningful statistics but still on the small side, if you ask me, but the logic here seems pretty sounds. People that once turned to torrent sites and peer-to-peer services to obtain sought-after tracks can now just as easily dial them up in Thumbplay, Grooveshark, Pandora, Slacker, or any other number of options.

Thumplay’s app has been available for Android since the summer and takes a slightly different approach then some of the others mentioned above, and just like those it is at its best when coupled with a paid subscription. Considering many of the users surveyed most likely were paying this subscription fee, it indicates they were already willing to pay for music in the first place (though 75 percent said this was their first time paying for such a service), therefore calling into question their use of file sharing networks in general. But that’s just playing devil’s advocate.

THUMBPLAY SURVEY FINDS 70% OF CLOUD-BASED MUSIC USERS NO LONGER USE P2P MUSIC SERVICES
– iPhone 4 Tops Holiday Wish Lists; Android and BlackBerry Fans Clamor for Droid X and BlackBerry Torch –

NEW YORK – DECEMBER 7, 2010 – In a survey recently conducted by Thumbplay®, a leader in the cloud-based music space, 70% of respondents[1] reported that they have stopped using Peer-to-Peer (P2P) services since engaging Thumbplay Music®. Thumbplay Music, which works on numerous devices across all major smartphone platforms in the U.S., is one of the most widely-available cloud-based streaming music services in the U.S.

More than 500,000 people have downloaded Thumbplay Music to date; nearly 70% are male and the largest user group for the service is 25 – 34-years-old, followed closely by 35 – 44-year-olds. Thumbplay’s popular, feature-rich app with more than 10 million songs has been publicly available on Android™, Apple® and BlackBerry® smartphone platforms since June 2010. It is also available for PCs/Macs®.

People who relied on other streaming services have also migrated to the service. Nearly 80% said that they had previously used Pandora® and cited their primary reasons for using Thumbplay Music as: the ability to use the service on their iPhone®, Android or BlackBerry smartphones (31%), immediate access to an unlimited catalog (30%) and the ability to play music offline (19%).
Interestingly, cloud-based services also appear to be “waking up” music fans; 18% reported that they had “stopped listening to music on a regular basis” before Thumbplay. Nearly 75% stated that Thumbplay Music was the first streaming music service they had paid for.
Not surprisingly, the iPhone 4™ was the #1 smartphone requested for the holidays (30%). The Droid X™ was most-requested Android device and the BlackBerry® Torch™ topped BlackBerry users’ list.
Thumbplay Music usage ranking by platform (June 1 – October 1, 2010):

1. Apple – 39%
2. BlackBerry – 36%
3. Android – 25%

Thumbplay Music boasts several compelling features, including:
Unlimited, on-demand access to any artist or album; choose from millions of songs.
iTunes® Playlist/Favorite Artist Import within Thumbplay Music’s companion desktop app. With a few clicks, recreate iTunes playlists and have them available on your smartphone and PC/Mac.
Genie for music discovery: Instantly generate customized recommendations from select songs and artists – it’s a great way to quickly build playlists that you know you’re going to love while discovering new music.
Online and offline access: No connection? No problem! Listen to music on the subway or in-flight. Available anytime, anywhere for Android, BlackBerry and iPhone.
Music Sharing: Drag-and-drop songs or albums into Twitter, or, to post on Facebook. “Share” by right-clicking on any of the millions of songs within Thumbplay Music’s desktop app. Both Twitter and Facebook sharing options will be available soon for smartphones.
Effortless Playlist creation to quickly build your personal collection; auto-syncs between smartphone and PC/Mac.
Search: Find music by artist, song, album or genre; includes free previews of all songs
Free, “no strings attached” three-day trial; subscriptions are then available for $9.99/month

Thumbplay, which enjoys sustained profitability, has built an award-winning service centered on delivering millions of pieces of mobile content to 95 percent of U.S. devices among every major carrier. Thumbplay is leveraging its existing network of more than 8,000 distribution partners to promote Thumbplay Music. Click on the following link to watch a video demo of the app running on all platforms: http://bit.ly/b27GTY.