News & Insights

Music streamers love brands. It’s official.

We’re living in a time-shifted, screen-shifted and on-demand world. People spend 21% more time on mobile apps (and 79% more time on music apps) than they did last year. Live TV watching and moviegoing is giving way to on-demand viewing. And global revenues from music subscription and streaming platforms grew by 51% in the past year, signaling a major shift in the way people listen.

In the face of these unstoppable trends, marketers are faced with a whole new set of opportunities and challenges. Can they reach this valuable, yet elusive audience effectively? Luckily, a clearer picture of the streaming consumer is emerging, and it’s a promising one:

Streamers are twice as likely as non-streamers to advocate for and feel emotionally connected to brands.

That’s the key finding from the Brand Impact Study, which surveyed 4,500 people across nine countries and asked them to share their listening habits along with their thoughts and feelings about over 200 brands across five verticals. Administered by comScore and commissioned by Spotify for Brands, the study is the first in a series of upcoming Impact studies that will look to define and quantify the streaming consumer experience.

Here are a few highlights. Compared to non-streamers, streamers—people who use a streaming music service at least monthly—are:1

  • Over 2x as likely to be willing to pay more for brands
  • 61% more likely to recommend brands to a friend
  • 74% more likely to describe a brand as “the only brand for me”
  • 70% more likely to describe a brand as fun and playful

The study also examined how these audiences listen to music, consume media, shop, use transportation and more. It found that streamers are:2

  • 74% more likely to listen via smartphone
  • 3x+ more than 3x as likely to listen while shopping or traveling
  • 2x as likely to listen at work or school and while exercising
  • 5x as likely to watch TV and movies online daily

Finally, we also looked at how Spotify users (people who use Spotify at least monthly) compare to non-streamers. Here’s a glimpse at the results:3

  • 3x as likely to be willing to pay more for a brand
  • Nearly 2x as likely to recommend brands to a friend
  • 2x as likely to listen to music on a smartphone, and over 2x as likely to listen on tablet
  • Nearly 5x as likely to listen while shopping
  • 3x as likely to listen at work, at school or while exercising
  • Over 6x as likely to watch TV and movies online daily
1, 2, 3 Spotify and comScore, Brand Impact Study 2014. Streamers vs. non-streamers

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