86% of consumers listen to music through on-demand streaming according to the Music Consumer Insight Report 2018 published by IFPI, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. The report is an in-depth study on global music listening habits which examines the ways in which music consumers aged 16-64 engage with recorded music across 20 of the world’s largest music markets.
As music streaming becomes more popular, the report highlights the challenges the music industry faces with digital copyright infringement and the double whammy of consumers getting music from YouTube for free combined with the poor royalty payments available from YouTube plays. The full report can be downloaded here.
Report highlights
- Music is an integral part of our lives: On average, we each enjoy music for 17.8 hours per week, with the car being the most popular listening location
- Streaming is virtually ubiquitous: 86% of us listen to music through on-demand streaming. Young music consumers are most engaged streamers, with 57% of 16-24 year olds using a paid audio streaming service.
- Consumers are engaging with their local music genres: Music consumers especially enjoy listening to local music genres, with 66% of consumers in Japan listening to J-Pop, 69% of consumers in France listening to Variété Française and, in Brazil, 55% listening to música popular brasileira.
- High-growth music markets are seeing high levels of licensed engagement: 96% of consumers in China and 96% in India listen to licensed music.
- User upload services continue to dominate consumption: Nearly half of all time spent listening to on-demand music is on YouTube.
- Copyright infringement remains a significant issue: More than one-third (38%) of consumers obtain music through infringing methods – with stream ripping the dominant method (32% of consumers).
Frances Moore, CEO of IFPI, commented, “This year’s Music Consumer Insight Report tells the story of how recorded music is woven into the lives of fans around the world. As it becomes increasingly accessible, it continues to be embraced across formats, genres and technologies.
“However, this report also shows the challenges the music community continues to face – both in the form of the evolving threat of digital copyright infringement as well as in the failure to achieve fair compensation from some user-upload services. Policymakers around the globe have been scrutinising these issues and increasingly acting to address them.”
IFPI is the organisation that promotes the interests of the international recording industry worldwide. Its membership comprises some 1,300 major and independent companies in 59 countries and has affiliated industry national groups in 57 countries.
