Wireless Spurring Audio Market as Consumers Look To Leverage Music From Smartphones

Wireless is leading the push for speakers and headphones in U.S. broadband households, said a Parks Associates report. Some 15 percent of U.S. broadband households plan to buy wireless speakers by-mid 2016, while 18 percent plan to buy earbuds and 16 percent plan to buy headphones, said the report. At the beginning of the year, nearly six in 10 U.S. broadband households with speakers owned a wireless version, said the research company, and 42 percent of households with headphones owned a wireless pair, said Parks analyst Brad Russell, citing a "willingness among consumers to spend on connected audio equipment in order to enhance the audio experience, add a wireless component to the audio setup in the home, and adopt a brand with the reputation for fashionable accessories and high-quality sound." The smartphone is now the primary interface for the connected home and is helping to create new app uses for music streaming services, driving interest in connected audio devices, said Russell. Some 22 percent of U.S. broadband households own wireless speakers and more than one-third of U.S. broadband households use their smartphones to stream music to speakers or stereo systems, said the research firm Wednesday. Consumers 25-34 are the largest age group streaming tunes from smartphones to speakers, Parks said. Among all U.S. broadband households, 40 percent use a free service to stream audio and 26 percent subscribe to paid streaming audio services, it said. Amazon Prime Music is the top subscription music service among U.S. broadband households (10 percent), followed by Pandora One (6 percent) and Spotify Premium (4 percent).