Connectivity and convenience are driving the growth in portable...

Connectivity and convenience are driving the growth in portable music players, NPD said in an audio report. Wireless streaming speaker sales grew to $262 million in 2012, up from $60 million in 2012 and soundbars with Bluetooth wireless streaming capability grew to $145 million from $21 million in 2011, Ben Arnold, analyst, told Consumer Electronics Daily. “It’s all about the convenience of accessing music from the cloud and not having music to own but to rent,” Arnold said. “More and more people are gravitating to services,” he said, citing Spotify, Pandora and Rhapsody. Standalone MP3 players are taking the hit, as the category saw a 22 percent falloff in sales last year, Arnold said. A “standard downward trajectory” of non-connected music devices has been offset by a rise in music playback on mobile devices to 40 percent of tablet users and 56 percent of smartphone users, Arnold said. Among smartphone users, 39 percent listen to music at least once a day and 54 percent are using phones for music more than they did a year ago, according to the report. Sixty-five percent of smartphone users in the study reported using Internet radio, such as Pandora, while 30 used on-demand services such as Spotify or Rhapsody. Sixty percent also transferred their own music to their smartphone. Tablet users scored similarly on music service playback, and half said the port their own music files to the device, it said. Despite the increase in music listening on mobile connected devices, consumers aren’t using the MP3 players less, Arnold said. “Sales are declining but that doesn’t mean fewer people own them,” he said. The installed base of MP3 player owners still use the devices for specific activities, he said, citing “field use” such as exercise where a less expensive, lighter MP3 player fits the bill. People spend a lot of money on phones and they hold a lot of important information, Arnold said. “If you damage it while exercising, that’s a tough blow.”