Spotify Rapidly Growing in Popularity with Youth

March 20, 2017

This article is included in these additional categories:

Digital | Media & Entertainment | Radio | Teens & Younger | Word of Mouth

Spotify has been showing strong, steady growth among the 12-24 demographic, and has now overtaken Pandora in popularity for this age group, according to the latest Infinite Dial report [pdf] from Edison Research and Triton Digital. Back in 2013, only 6% of respondents aged 12-24 reported being weekly Spotify listeners, but that figure has soared to 25% in 2016 and 38% this year.

In doing so, Spotify this year overtook Pandora, which is a weekly listening source for 30% of 12-24-year-olds. Weekly Pandora listening has declined for the second consecutive year after reaching a peak of 45% in 2015.

Young listeners also rely more often on Spotify than on Pandora as a source for discovering new music. Fully one-fifth of the age group say that they go to Spotify most frequently to stay up-to-date with music, second only to friends and family (25%) and even ahead of YouTube (19%). Pandora was the choice for fewer than 1 in 10 (9%).

The 20% reporting Spotify as their main source is more than twice the share (9%) from last year.

While only half (49%) of the total survey respondents said that it is “very” or “somewhat” important to keep up-to-date with music, a significantly greater percentage of those between 12-24 felt that way (70%). Of these younger listeners, 80% use YouTube to stay up-to-date, followed by friends and family (77%) and Spotify (59%).

Overall (not just limited to youth), friends and family continue to be the most common way of keeping up-to-date with music (68%). Although YouTube (64%) and AM/FM radio (63%) are still widely used by respondents, Spotify is the only source to show significant year-over-year growth, with the third of respondents using this year being up from one-quarter last year.

About the Data: The results are based on a national telephone survey conducted in January and February 2017 of 2,000 respondents aged 12 and older. Interviews were 51% land line and 49% cell phone, and the survey was offered in both English and Spanish.

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