Leading Brands in U.S. Music & Podcasts: Q1 2025 Insights

Introduction

The U.S. Music & Podcasts category continues to thrive, with major players like Spotify, YouTube Music, and Pandora Media leading the charge. In Q1 2025, these brands showcased significant audience engagement across their websites and apps. This article delves into their performance trends, highlighting Sensor Tower's unique capabilities in providing comprehensive data insights.

Spotify

Spotify's digital footprint is prominent with both its website, spotify.com, and the Spotify: Music and Podcasts app.

• Audience Trends: From Q4 2024 to Q1 2025, spotify.com saw a steady increase in visits, peaking in March at over 1.3B visits. The monthly deduplicated audience remained stable above 100M, with web-only visitors showing a slight increase.

• App Engagement: The app maintained a consistent monthly active user base, hovering around 95M, indicating strong mobile engagement.

• Ad Spend & Channels: Spotify's advertising strategy saw a significant spike in December 2024, with monthly ad spend reaching over $10M. Instagram and Snapchat were key channels, delivering substantial impressions.

YouTube Music

YouTube Music's presence is robust with its website, music.youtube.com, and the YouTube Music app.

• Audience Trends: The website experienced a notable rise in visits, especially in March 2025, surpassing 1.4B visits. The monthly deduplicated audience remained around 47M, with a balanced distribution between app and web-only visitors.

• App Engagement: Monthly active users stayed relatively stable, fluctuating slightly above 54M.

• Ad Spend & Channels: Advertising efforts were concentrated on Instagram, with a peak in December 2024, spending over $450K and garnering significant impressions.

Pandora Media

Pandora Media continues to engage users through its website, pandora.com, and the Pandora: Music & Podcasts app.

• Audience Trends: The website's visits were consistent, with a slight increase in March 2025, reaching over 1.2B visits. The monthly deduplicated audience hovered around 43M, with app-only visitors forming the majority.

• App Engagement: The app's monthly active user base remained stable, averaging around 20M.

• Ad Spend & Channels: Pandora's monthly ad spend was modest, with Snapchat being the dominant channel, providing the majority of impressions.

Conclusion

The Music & Podcasts category in the U.S. remains dynamic, with Spotify, YouTube Music, and Pandora Media leading the way. Sensor Tower's unparalleled data insights offer a comprehensive view of cross-platform user behavior, essential for understanding these brands' strategies and audience engagement. Explore Sensor Tower's offerings, including Web Insights, App Performance Insights, and Pathmatics, to gain deeper insights into the digital landscape.