Music Discovery Streaming’s Growing Role

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The 20,000 Foot View: Radio has long led music discovery and continues to do so today. However, streaming – both audio and video – are making up ground fast, especially among more engaged and younger music fans. These shifts in discovery come as music marketing strategy is placing an ever-greater emphasis on streaming.

Key Insights

• Despite declining audiences and the onslaught of streaming, radio is still the main way in which consumers discover music, with        penetration 
• YouTube retains second place at        and, perhaps more importantly, it gained six points on radio between        2019 and        2020
• Audio streaming was the biggest gainer and between        2019 and        2020, moving from the fifth-most widely cited way of finding new music to the third, with       
• Streamers and music aficionados over-index strongly for social discovery, illustrating the importance of targeting social to drive streams
• The less developed an audio streaming market, the bigger the role of radio – but YouTube’s importance is largely unaffected 
• There is a generational divide in music discovery, with younger consumers skewing towards audio streaming and YouTube, while older ones lean on radio
• Audio streaming is the dominant form of music discovery among daily users of streaming        but YouTube        and radio        are also both key
• Just        of Spotify weekly active users rely on podcasts for music discovery

Companies and brands mentioned in this report: Spotify, YouTube