Here’s how long the average person spends listening to music every week
The IFPI, or International Federation of Phonographic Industry, is the representative body of recorded music worldwide
They’re a multi-faceted organisation, though one of their big annual endeavours to study and release the lastest music listening trends.
The report for 2019 has just been released and it bears interesting fruit for all interested in music.
The full 17-page report is available here.
The report details, among other things, the latest trends in the public’s listening habits amongst ages 16-64 across 21 countries. Here are some interesting points of note.
- The report finds that the average person spends close to 18 hours a week listening to music. While this metric might seem nebulous to fully digest at first, it’s worth breaking it down. That means “2.6 hours – or the equivalent of listening to 52 three-minute songs – daily.”
- How much of this listening is passive (background) versus active is unclear – though it seems it’d be a hard metric to measure.
- That figure of 18 hours is up from last years’ 17.6, the report finds.
- 54% of those surveyed identified as being “‘loving’ or being ‘fanatical’ about music.” This figure rises to 64% in the demographic between 16-24. No surprises there as younger audiences tend to have a larger appetite for discovering new music and have more time in which to do so.
- Issues arise again here, ‘loving’ and ‘fanatical’ aren’t exactly scientific terms and that distinguishment may vary from person to person – though it is certainly a useful factoid.
So music is getting more popular? It’s hard to conclusively say. The report does find that streaming service engagement is up across all age ranges – notably among the older demographics. That’s certainly a positive sign.
Read the IFPI’s summary here.
