Music streaming services represent the mainstream for music consumption in Finland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden: 9.4 million Nordic consumers streamed music in 2015. This is evident from the Polaris Nordic Digital Music Survey 2015, which was commissioned by three collecting societies Teosto (FIN), Koda (DK) and Tono (N).
The Polaris Nordic Digital Music survey was carried out in Denmark, Norway, Finland and Sweden in September 2015. The survey, which was was conducted by YouGov, was targeted at Internet users aged 12 to 65 and attracted a total of 3,200 online respondents (800 per country). The survey was commissioned by the three Nordic collecting societies Koda (Denmark), Teosto Finland) and Tono (Norway), who formed the Polaris Nordic Alliance in 2013. The survey is the second of its kind; the first was carried out in 2014.
Alltogether 58% of Nordic respondents aged 15 to 65 (an estimated 9.4 million) say they have consumed music content within the previous twelve months from one or more music streaming services, such as Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal/Wimp or TDC/YouSeePlay. Looking at all online music sources, Spotify, YouTube and Apple iTunes are the top three music destinations for Nordic consumers.
The survey shows that a steady number of Nordic Internet consumers also pay for their online use of music. In 2015 a total of 23% of respondents aged 15 to 65 stated they had paid for their digital use of music within the last year (e.g. as downloads or via streaming services).
64% of all respondents also agree or strongly agree that music creators should be paid when their music is played on online services.
Radio remains the most often cited source for new music discovery in all four countries, followed by YouTube and dedicated music streaming services. 40% of Nordic respondents selected “I heard it on the radio” when prompted for the source of discovery for the latest new track found to be good. At the same time, also the role of music streaming services for music discovery seems to increase as the number of streaming music users keeps rising.
For young respondents the role of friends, social media and music streaming services was higher for music discovery, even though the role of radio remained considerable. They were also more likely to share music, music videos and playlists, and listen to shared or curated playlists on music streaming services.
