Music streaming subscriptions up 14% in the Nordics (Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland) since 2018 with the share of paying users now greater than that of users streaming exclusively through a free service. This is the key statistic from the Polaris Nordic Digital Music Survey 2020, conducted by YouGov on behalf of the Polaris HUB, which is a joint venture between the Nordic collective rights management societies Koda (DK), TONO (NO) and Teosto (FIN).
Today, half of the population of the Nordic countries pay for a music streaming service subscription with 49% of all inhabitants now having a subscription to a music streaming service – a 14% increase since 2018.
The number of residents who only stream music through a free service has decreased which means that the share of users paying to stream music now exceeds the share of listeners without subscriptions. Denmark, Norway and Finland are seeing the greatest increase in the number of subscribers.
Despite a marked increase in the number of subscribers to music streaming services, 42% of the Nordic population still listen exclusively to music via a free service. YouTube is by far the biggest in this regard: 75% of residents in the Nordic countries have used YouTube to listen to music for free, while 39% have used Spotify Free or their trial offerings, making it the second-largest free service. In total, 68% of all music consumption takes place on free services.
When asked why they do not subscribe to a music streaming service, respondents state a variety of reasons, including that the subscriptions are too expensive and that there are so many free alternatives available that it makes no sense for them to pay.
Streaming is increasing during the COVID-19 crisis
The impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the popularity of music and video streaming services was studied as part of the survey. Although the research interviews were conducted in early April 2020 (3rd – 14th) when the restrictions due to the pandemic hadn’t been in place for long, an increase in the use of streaming services was evident.
On a Nordic level especially the use of Spotify and listening to music on Facebook and Instagram had increased quite significantly: Spotify and Instagram usage by 3% and Facebook usage by 5%. changes were also visible in the share of people subscribing to video streaming services with Netflix heading the growth by 3% increase. The daily time spent on different video streaming services increased as well.
So far the share of paying and non-paying users of different streaming services remained unchanged on a Nordic level.
Key survey findings
49% of all Nordic residents pay for a music streaming subscription
(2018: 43%t)
42% of all Nordic residents exclusively listen to music via a free service
(2018: 47%)
75% of all Nordic residents have used YouTube to listen to music for free
(2018: 74%)
3.2 hours: the average amount of time spent by residents of the Nordic countries on music streaming a day
62% of the total amount of music streamed (in terms of time) is streamed from free services
COVID-19 Initial impact
Listening music on Facebook increased 5% (from 20% to 25%)
Spotify usage increased 3% (from 53% to 56%)
Listening music on Instagram increased 3% (from 12% to 15%)
Netflix subscriptions increased 3% (from 47% to 50%)
The full report is freely available and can be downloaded here.
