diff --git a/pkg/s3select/json/preader.go b/pkg/s3select/json/preader.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..bb7798004
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkg/s3select/json/preader.go
@@ -0,0 +1,227 @@
+/*
+ * MinIO Cloud Storage, (C) 2019 MinIO, Inc.
+ *
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+package json
+
+import (
+	"bufio"
+	"bytes"
+	"io"
+	"runtime"
+	"sync"
+
+	"github.com/bcicen/jstream"
+	"github.com/minio/minio/pkg/s3select/sql"
+)
+
+// PReader - JSON record reader for S3Select.
+// Operates concurrently on line-delimited JSON.
+type PReader struct {
+	args        *ReaderArgs
+	readCloser  io.ReadCloser   // raw input
+	buf         *bufio.Reader   // input to the splitter
+	current     []jstream.KVS   // current block of results to be returned
+	recordsRead int             // number of records read in current slice
+	input       chan *queueItem // input for workers
+	queue       chan *queueItem // output from workers in order
+	err         error           // global error state, only touched by Reader.Read
+	bufferPool  sync.Pool       // pool of []byte objects for input
+	kvDstPool   sync.Pool       // pool of []jstream.KV used for output
+	close       chan struct{}   // used for shutting down the splitter before end of stream
+	readerWg    sync.WaitGroup  // used to keep track of async reader.
+}
+
+// queueItem is an item in the queue.
+type queueItem struct {
+	input []byte             // raw input sent to the worker
+	dst   chan []jstream.KVS // result of block decode
+	err   error              // any error encountered will be set here
+}
+
+// Read - reads single record.
+// Once Read is called the previous record should no longer be referenced.
+func (r *PReader) Read(dst sql.Record) (sql.Record, error) {
+	// If we have have any records left, return these before any error.
+	for len(r.current) <= r.recordsRead {
+		if r.err != nil {
+			return nil, r.err
+		}
+		// Move to next block
+		item, ok := <-r.queue
+		if !ok {
+			r.err = io.EOF
+			return nil, r.err
+		}
+		//lint:ignore SA6002 Using pointer would allocate more since we would have to copy slice header before taking a pointer.
+		r.kvDstPool.Put(r.current)
+		r.current = <-item.dst
+		r.err = item.err
+		r.recordsRead = 0
+	}
+	kvRecord := r.current[r.recordsRead]
+	r.recordsRead++
+
+	dstRec, ok := dst.(*Record)
+	if !ok {
+		dstRec = &Record{}
+	}
+	dstRec.KVS = kvRecord
+	dstRec.SelectFormat = sql.SelectFmtJSON
+	return dstRec, nil
+}
+
+// Close - closes underlying reader.
+func (r *PReader) Close() error {
+	if r.close != nil {
+		close(r.close)
+		r.readerWg.Wait()
+		r.close = nil
+	}
+	r.recordsRead = len(r.current)
+	if r.err == nil {
+		r.err = io.EOF
+	}
+	return r.readCloser.Close()
+}
+
+// nextSplit will attempt to skip a number of bytes and
+// return the buffer until the next newline occurs.
+// The last block will be sent along with an io.EOF.
+func (r *PReader) nextSplit(skip int, dst []byte) ([]byte, error) {
+	if cap(dst) < skip {
+		dst = make([]byte, 0, skip+1024)
+	}
+	dst = dst[:skip]
+	if skip > 0 {
+		n, err := io.ReadFull(r.buf, dst)
+		if err != nil && err != io.ErrUnexpectedEOF {
+			// If an EOF happens after reading some but not all the bytes,
+			// ReadFull returns ErrUnexpectedEOF.
+			return dst[:n], err
+		}
+		dst = dst[:n]
+		if err == io.ErrUnexpectedEOF {
+			return dst, io.EOF
+		}
+	}
+	// Read until next line.
+	in, err := r.buf.ReadBytes('\n')
+	dst = append(dst, in...)
+	return dst, err
+}
+
+// jsonSplitSize is the size of each block.
+// Blocks will read this much and find the first following newline.
+// 128KB appears to be a very reasonable default.
+const jsonSplitSize = 128 << 10
+
+// startReaders will read the header if needed and spin up a parser
+// and a number of workers based on GOMAXPROCS.
+// If an error is returned no goroutines have been started and r.err will have been set.
+func (r *PReader) startReaders() {
+	r.bufferPool.New = func() interface{} {
+		return make([]byte, jsonSplitSize+1024)
+	}
+
+	// Create queue
+	r.queue = make(chan *queueItem, runtime.GOMAXPROCS(0))
+	r.input = make(chan *queueItem, runtime.GOMAXPROCS(0))
+	r.readerWg.Add(1)
+
+	// Start splitter
+	go func() {
+		defer close(r.input)
+		defer close(r.queue)
+		defer r.readerWg.Done()
+		for {
+			next, err := r.nextSplit(jsonSplitSize, r.bufferPool.Get().([]byte))
+			q := queueItem{
+				input: next,
+				dst:   make(chan []jstream.KVS, 1),
+				err:   err,
+			}
+			select {
+			case <-r.close:
+				return
+			case r.queue <- &q:
+			}
+
+			select {
+			case <-r.close:
+				return
+			case r.input <- &q:
+			}
+			if err != nil {
+				// Exit on any error.
+				return
+			}
+		}
+	}()
+
+	// Start parsers
+	for i := 0; i < runtime.GOMAXPROCS(0); i++ {
+		go func() {
+			for in := range r.input {
+				if len(in.input) == 0 {
+					in.dst <- nil
+					continue
+				}
+				dst, ok := r.kvDstPool.Get().([]jstream.KVS)
+				if !ok {
+					dst = make([]jstream.KVS, 0, 1000)
+				}
+
+				d := jstream.NewDecoder(bytes.NewBuffer(in.input), 0).ObjectAsKVS()
+				stream := d.Stream()
+				all := dst[:0]
+				for mv := range stream {
+					var kvs jstream.KVS
+					if mv.ValueType == jstream.Object {
+						// This is a JSON object type (that preserves key
+						// order)
+						kvs = mv.Value.(jstream.KVS)
+					} else {
+						// To be AWS S3 compatible Select for JSON needs to
+						// output non-object JSON as single column value
+						// i.e. a map with `_1` as key and value as the
+						// non-object.
+						kvs = jstream.KVS{jstream.KV{Key: "_1", Value: mv.Value}}
+					}
+					all = append(all, kvs)
+				}
+				// We don't need the input any more.
+				//lint:ignore SA6002 Using pointer would allocate more since we would have to copy slice header before taking a pointer.
+				r.bufferPool.Put(in.input)
+				in.input = nil
+				in.err = d.Err()
+				in.dst <- all
+			}
+		}()
+	}
+}
+
+// NewPReader - creates new parallel JSON reader using readCloser.
+// Should only be used for LINES types.
+func NewPReader(readCloser io.ReadCloser, args *ReaderArgs) *PReader {
+	r := &PReader{
+		args:       args,
+		buf:        bufio.NewReaderSize(readCloser, jsonSplitSize*2),
+		readCloser: readCloser,
+		close:      make(chan struct{}),
+	}
+	r.startReaders()
+	return r
+}
diff --git a/pkg/s3select/json/preader_test.go b/pkg/s3select/json/preader_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..7d345e6ea
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkg/s3select/json/preader_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,106 @@
+/*
+ * MinIO Cloud Storage, (C) 2019 MinIO, Inc.
+ *
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+package json
+
+import (
+	"bytes"
+	"io"
+	"io/ioutil"
+	"os"
+	"path/filepath"
+	"testing"
+
+	"github.com/minio/minio/pkg/s3select/sql"
+)
+
+func TestNewPReader(t *testing.T) {
+	files, err := ioutil.ReadDir("testdata")
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	for _, file := range files {
+		t.Run(file.Name(), func(t *testing.T) {
+			f, err := os.Open(filepath.Join("testdata", file.Name()))
+			if err != nil {
+				t.Fatal(err)
+			}
+			r := NewPReader(f, &ReaderArgs{})
+			var record sql.Record
+			for {
+				record, err = r.Read(record)
+				if err != nil {
+					break
+				}
+			}
+			r.Close()
+			if err != io.EOF {
+				t.Fatalf("Reading failed with %s, %s", err, file.Name())
+			}
+		})
+
+		t.Run(file.Name()+"-close", func(t *testing.T) {
+			f, err := os.Open(filepath.Join("testdata", file.Name()))
+			if err != nil {
+				t.Fatal(err)
+			}
+			r := NewPReader(f, &ReaderArgs{})
+			r.Close()
+			var record sql.Record
+			for {
+				record, err = r.Read(record)
+				if err != nil {
+					break
+				}
+			}
+			if err != io.EOF {
+				t.Fatalf("Reading failed with %s, %s", err, file.Name())
+			}
+		})
+	}
+}
+
+func BenchmarkPReader(b *testing.B) {
+	files, err := ioutil.ReadDir("testdata")
+	if err != nil {
+		b.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	for _, file := range files {
+		b.Run(file.Name(), func(b *testing.B) {
+			f, err := ioutil.ReadFile(filepath.Join("testdata", file.Name()))
+			if err != nil {
+				b.Fatal(err)
+			}
+			b.SetBytes(int64(len(f)))
+			b.ReportAllocs()
+			b.ResetTimer()
+			var record sql.Record
+			for i := 0; i < b.N; i++ {
+				r := NewPReader(ioutil.NopCloser(bytes.NewBuffer(f)), &ReaderArgs{})
+				for {
+					record, err = r.Read(record)
+					if err != nil {
+						break
+					}
+				}
+				r.Close()
+				if err != io.EOF {
+					b.Fatalf("Reading failed with %s, %s", err, file.Name())
+				}
+			}
+		})
+	}
+}
diff --git a/pkg/s3select/select.go b/pkg/s3select/select.go
index b9a28757e..5ace10707 100644
--- a/pkg/s3select/select.go
+++ b/pkg/s3select/select.go
@@ -316,7 +316,11 @@ func (s3Select *S3Select) Open(getReader func(offset, length int64) (io.ReadClos
 			return err
 		}
 
-		s3Select.recordReader = json.NewReader(s3Select.progressReader, &s3Select.Input.JSONArgs)
+		if strings.EqualFold(s3Select.Input.JSONArgs.ContentType, "lines") {
+			s3Select.recordReader = json.NewPReader(s3Select.progressReader, &s3Select.Input.JSONArgs)
+		} else {
+			s3Select.recordReader = json.NewReader(s3Select.progressReader, &s3Select.Input.JSONArgs)
+		}
 		return nil
 	case parquetFormat:
 		var err error