Nordic countries report heavy music streaming use, favoring YouTube and Spotify

Europe’s Nordic region continues to be a standard-setter for digital music adoption. The Polaris Nordic Digital Music Survey 2017 surveyed residents in Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark about their listening habits. It found that 80% of all inhabitants between the ages of 12 and 65 used at least one streaming service in the past year.

Free music is very popular in this region. The results showed that 87% of all digital music consumers streamed from at least one free service within the last year. However, already 40% of the users are premium subscribers or are customers through a bundled service. Paid subscriptions are less popular in Finland, with only 22% of respondents identifying as music customers. Sweden and Norway both posted 48% with paid subscriptions, while Denmark had 43%.

YouTube was the most popular service in the region, with 60% of the population using it to stream. Within that segment, 71% used YouTube at least once a week. Spotify was the second most popular, with 50% using it and 77% of its audience using it at least weekly. Facebook was also a frequent source of music listening. The results showed 35% of the Nordic population watched video with a music component on the social platform at least once a week.

“”The recent explosion in digital music consumption is a very positive thing: it testifies to how the legal and well-functioning streaming services are easily available and accessible and have become part of everyday life. However, the number of people who use free services are sadly significant,” said Anders Lassen, CEO of Koda, Denmark’s collecting society.

“The survey shows that Facebook has become an important media for music consumption. It is necessary that the EU ensures a new legal framework that will allow music creators to have a fair share of the digital music economy,” added Katri Sipilä, CEO of Finnish collection society Teosto.

Anna Washenko