Streaming habits: How are people around the world listening to music?
Maybe it is Taylor Swift, nostalgia or just the simple need to feel, touch and hold a physical record but vinyl sales topped 2 million weekly units for the third year in a row in 2023.
Data from YouGov Global Profiles - which covers demographic, psychographic, attitudinal and behavioural consumer metrics with 1,000+ questions in 47 major markets - reveals that Americans are the most likely when looking across various countries (45%) to agree that they “like to buy physical copies (CDs, vinyl) of my music.” Britons (38%) and Indians (38%) are next most likely.
Let’s look at YouGov data to learn more about people’s music consumption habits.
Data from YouGov Global Profiles shows that half of all Norwegians (50%) have listened to music via paid-for streaming services in the last six months – the most likely to do so. Mexicans (46%) and Swedes (46%) follow Norwegians.
As for those who opted for free streaming services to listen to music, Indonesians top the list (55%), followed by listeners in Thailand (51%) and Finland (49%). Mexicans are more likely to listen to music via paid-for streaming services than free streaming services (41%).
Respondents from South Africa are most likely (55%) to say they downloaded music from file sharing sites in the last six months. Listeners in the Philippines (44%), Indonesia (42%) and Vietnam (40%) follow those in South Africa in doing so.
More than a third of urban Indians (36%) also downloaded music from file sharing sites (by comparison, at 45%, these Indian consumers are more likely to have listened to music via free streaming services)
We now move on to some music streaming-related attitudinal questions and how likely listeners across markets are to agree with each of them:
“I primarily listen to music through streaming services”
Respondents in Turkey are the most likely across all markets surveyed to agree that they “primarily listen to music through streaming services.” More than three in five Indonesians (62%) agree as well (more than half of whom, we know by now, listen to music via free streaming services).
“I share my streaming services credentials only to people that are close to me”
At 52%, Indians lead when it comes to agreeing with another attitudinal statement - “I share my streaming service credentials only to people that are close to me”. Turks aren’t far behind, with half of them (50%) agreeing with the statement too, followed by Germans (48%).
“Video/music streaming services shouldn’t care if I share my credentials/subscription”
A similar proportion of Germans (46%) and Mexicans (47%) also agree that “video/music streaming services shouldn’t care if I share my credentials/subscriptions”. Equal proportions of Indians (44%) and Americans (44%) share this view.
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Methodology: YouGov Global Profiles is a globally consistent audience dataset with 1000+ questions across 48 markets. The data is based on continuously collected data from adults aged 16+ years in China and 18+ years in other markets. The sample sizes for YouGov Global Profiles will fluctuate over time, however the minimum sample size is always c.1000. Data from each market uses a nationally representative sample apart from India and UAE, which use urban representative samples, and China, Egypt, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Morocco, Philippines, South Africa, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam, which use online representative samples. Learn more about Global Profiles.
Photo by Viktor Forgacs™️ on Unsplash