90% Of Consumers In Spotify’s Home Market Stream Music, But Only 43% Pay For It

A new streaming music survey in the Nordic countries offers a look at what may be the best that Spotify and the music industry can hope for when it comes to paid versus free streaming.  Since streaming music was all but invented there, the Nordic countries of Norway, Finland, Denmark and Spotify's home country of Sweden, are considered to be streaming's most mature market. 

“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, says Anders Lassen, CEO of KODA.

90% of residents ages 10 to 65 in the four Nordic countries stream music, but only 43% are paid subscribers. Average music streaming time among all streamers is over 11 hours per week. That's the major finding of the new The Polaris Nordic Digital Music Survey 2018 carried out as a collaborative project of the three Nordic collecting societies Koda (DK), Teosto (FIN) and TONO (N).

The most popular streaming service in the Nordic countries is YouTube. Within the last year, 74% of the population of the Nordic countries had used YouTube to stream music. Next on the list is Spotify: 54% of the population had used this service to stream music.  

Even though 69% of the Nordic population agrees that music creators should be compensated when their music is used in online services, the number of people using only free services has risen from 40% in 2017 to 47% in 2018.

Music Is Growing Fast On Facebook & Instagram

The survey showed that 20% of the Nordic population uses Facebook for watching music videos or videos containing music and 11% uses Instagram. The survey also reveals that 69% of the Nordic population agrees with the statement 

“I think it's fair that online services, which use music as a part of their business, pay a share of their revenue to the creators of the music”.