Music listening is above average in Spain with Spaniards listening to 20 hours of music a week, two more than the world average. Half of the Spanish population declares themselves to be a ‘fan’ of music and mostly listens to it on streaming platforms according to an analysis of data from IFPI’s Music Listening Report 2019 by Promusicae, the Spanish recorded music industry association. The complete IFPI report can be downloaded in either English or Spanish here.
Spaniards between 16 and 64 years of age spent an average of 19.8 hours per week listening to music, at a rate of 2.8 hours per day. Assuming an average that each track is around three minutes long, this means that Spaniards listen to an average of 56 songs a day.
The study looked into how music fitted into everyday life across the planet and found that the number of songs listened to daily was 52 globally and 56 in Spain. The highest daily music listening in the world was in Mexico where they listen to 25.6 hours per week, closely followed by South Africa with 25.4 hours. Other countries with higher weekly listening include Argentina with 22.9 hours, Poland with 21.8 hours and Brazil with 20.9 hours. All other countries surveyed had fewer listening hours than Spain including surprisingly the US who came in at 16 hours per week.
One surprising observation is that despite its above average listening figures, Spain is not one of the most enthusiastic countries when it comes to assessing the importance of music in their lives. Globally 54% of those surveyed by IFPI are considered ‘lovers’ or ‘fans’ of music compared to 49% in Spain.
Streaming in Spain
The survey confirmed that globally streaming is now the primary method of music consumption and continues to grow. 89% of those surveyed both in Spain and worldwide use a streaming service (audio and video) at some time. In Spain users consume 5 hours of audio streaming per week compared to the global average of 4 hours.
The survey found that audio streaming across all age groups in Spain was remarkably similar to the global average – 64% globally compared to 63% in Spain (a 5% increase compared to the same period in 2018). However, streaming in the 55-64 year old group had a greater increase rising from 38% to 46% in 2019, an increase of 9%. The survey also suggests that audio streaming services are starting to reach new audiences with the finding that using a smart speaker was becoming the most convenient way to listen to music.
Spanish listeners aged 16-24 years old had fewer premium or paid subscriptions (35%) compared to the survey average of 52%. The report also highlights the so-called Value Gap where music is consumed via video streaming (which pays considerably lower royalties) and gives significantly lower returns to artists and record companies. 40% of music listening comes via video streaming and only generates 13.9% of income to the Spanish record industry (first half of 2019 figures). The survey found that 78% of respondents said they had used YouTube to listen to music in the last month.
Piracy is still present in Spain
27% of respondents worldwide admit that during the last month they used some illegal platform to listen to or download music, a percentage that increases to 38% in the case of the youngest (16-24 year olds). The number of offenders is somewhat higher in the Spanish case – 29% and 48% among youth representing a 2% and 10% increase respectively over the overall average. 23% of respondents admitted that they resorted to stream ripping to access illegal content, a regular activity for 43% of the youngest in Spain (well above the world average of 34%). Although piracy in Spain has declined in recent years (from nearly double the EMEA average) the survey shows that this remains a priority problem to be solved and is a significant challenge for Spanish music producers.
