Music discovery is spread across more channels than a single streaming app. In 2023, people in IFPI’s 18-country core sample listened to music for an average of 20.7 hours per week, while respondents in the wider 26-country study used more than 7 methods to engage with music. The figures below show how streaming, radio, video, gaming, playlists, and international platforms each contribute to finding music.
Contents
- Global listening time and the scale of discovery
- Streaming access and personalized discovery
- Video, social, gaming, and screen-based discovery
- Radio remains a discovery channel
- Platform-level discovery and artist reach
- Market differences in engagement and variety
Global listening time and the scale of discovery
The amount of time available for music discovery is substantial. IFPI’s Engaging With Music 2023 report measured 20.7 hours of weekly listening in its core 18-country sample. That is an average across the sample, not a forecast or a universal individual listening level. The same report found that people used more than 7 different methods to engage with music on average, suggesting that discovery is distributed across several habits rather than confined to one service.
IFPI’s 26-country study divided music-engagement time among several formats. Audio streaming represented 32%, and video streaming represented 31%. Radio accounted for 17%, purchased music for 9%, live music including livestreaming for 4%, and other forms of listening for 7%.
| Music-engagement method | Share of engagement time, 2023 |
|---|---|
| Audio streaming | 32% |
| Video streaming | 31% |
| Radio | 17% |
| Purchased music | 9% |
| Other listening | 7% |
| Live music, including livestreaming | 4% |
These percentages describe engagement time in IFPI’s 26-country study. They do not mean that every listener spent the same proportion of time in each format, and they should not be read as a ranking of the quality of discovery on each channel. They do show that audio and video streaming together accounted for 63% of measured engagement time in that study, while radio retained a 17% share.
Streaming access and personalized discovery
Streaming is both an access method and a discovery system. In IFPI’s core 18-country sample, 48% of people listened through subscription audio streaming in 2023. Across the 26-country study, 73% used licensed audio streaming services, including subscription and ad-supported tiers, in the last month.
Subscription use varied by age. In the 2023 global study, 60% of 16–24-year-olds and 62% of 25–34-year-olds used subscription audio streaming in the last month. The corresponding figures were 50% for ages 35–44, 40% for ages 45–54, and 28% for ages 55–64.
| Age group | Subscription audio streaming use in the last month |
|---|---|
| 16–24 | 60% |
| 25–34 | 62% |
| 35–44 | 50% |
| 45–54 | 40% |
| 55–64 | 28% |
The way listeners navigate these services also points to active choice. Among global respondents, 63% said they actively chose specific songs, 57% actively chose specific artists, and 59% used their own playlists to choose music on streaming services. These are reported behaviors, not measures of how many new artists each action produced.
There is also a measurable connection between paid access and recurring discovery. In IFPI’s 2023 global study, 44% of people who paid for a music subscription discovered a new music artist at least weekly. The result identifies a weekly discovery rate within that group; it does not establish that subscription payment alone caused the discovery.
Video, social, gaming, and screen-based discovery
Music discovery is increasingly tied to visual and interactive contexts. Among 16–24-year-olds in IFPI’s 2023 global study, short-form video was a daily music-engagement method for 82%. Audio streaming reached 72% for the same age group, while video-streaming platforms reached 66% and radio reached 48%.
Short-form video was not only a place where music appeared incidentally. Music was central to 54% of all time spent watching videos on short-form video apps in the global study. This measures the role of music in viewing time, rather than the percentage of users who discovered an artist through a particular clip.
Other screen-based formats also contributed to music exposure. In the last month measured by IFPI in 2023, 36% of people had watched a music livestream, such as a concert, and 57% had watched a music-focused television show or film. These figures include viewing behavior and do not separately quantify how many viewers went on to stream a newly discovered song.
Gaming creates another recurring listening environment. Eighty percent of gamers in IFPI’s global study listened to music while playing. The figure describes music listening during gameplay, so it should not be treated as a direct count of music discoveries. It does, however, show how games can place music alongside a high-frequency activity.
Radio remains a discovery channel
Radio continues to function as a music-led channel even as streaming expands. Among radio listeners in IFPI’s 2023 global study, 76% listened mainly for the music. Another 67% said they tuned into their favorite station because of the music it played, and 63% said they would not listen to radio without music.
Radio engagement was present across every age group measured, although the levels increased with age in this dataset. Engagement was 59% among 16–24-year-olds, 71% among 25–34-year-olds, 77% among 35–44-year-olds, 77% among 45–54-year-olds, and 78% among 55–64-year-olds.
| Age group | Radio engagement, 2023 |
|---|---|
| 16–24 | 59% |
| 25–34 | 71% |
| 35–44 | 77% |
| 45–54 | 77% |
| 55–64 | 78% |
Device context matters too. Standalone or car radio accounted for 65% of radio-listening time by device in IFPI’s global study. This is a device-share measure, not a claim that 65% of all music listening happened on radio.
Platform-level discovery and artist reach
Spotify’s platform reporting gives a sense of the volume generated by recommendation and search systems. Spotify reported nearly 2 billion music discoveries per day on its platform in 2023. Because this is a platform-reported measure, it reflects Spotify’s definition of a discovery and should not be generalized to the entire streaming market.
Discover Weekly provides a longer time series. Spotify reported more than 100 billion tracks streamed through Discover Weekly during its first decade by June 2025. In 2025, the feature generated more than 56 million new artist discoveries each week, and 77% of those weekly new artist discoveries came from emerging artists.
The platform’s regional data also illustrates cross-border reach. Spotify reported 28 billion global discoveries of European artists in 2024. European listeners streamed EU artists 351.66 billion times on Spotify that year, while more than 830 million user-generated playlists in the United States included EU artists. More than 52,000 EU artists landed on Spotify editorial playlists in 2024, a 4% increase from 2023.
Spotify reported 6.9 billion artist discoveries in Germany in 2024. In Brazil, it reported nearly 11.8 billion first-time discoveries of Brazilian artists in 2024, up 19% year over year. The German and Brazilian figures use Spotify’s own platform definitions and are not directly comparable with IFPI’s survey percentages.
Market differences in engagement and variety
Country-level results show why a single global average can hide meaningful differences. In IFPI’s 2023 country focus, people in China listened to music for an average of 27.9 hours per week, used an average of 9.5 methods to engage with music, and 94% used licensed audio streaming.
People in India averaged 24.4 hours of weekly music listening and used an average of 11.4 methods to engage with music in the same 2023 country focus. Nigeria recorded an average of 28.3 hours of weekly listening.
| Market | Weekly listening time | Average methods of engagement | Licensed audio streaming |
|---|---|---|---|
| China | 27.9 hours | 9.5 | 94% |
| India | 24.4 hours | 11.4 | Not specified in the cited facts |
| Nigeria | 28.3 hours | Not specified in the cited facts | Not specified in the cited facts |
The country figures are from IFPI’s 2023 country focus and should be read within that report’s sample and definitions. They indicate differences in measured listening time, variety of engagement methods, and licensed-streaming use; they do not by themselves explain why those differences occur.
Taken together, the statistics describe music discovery as a connected ecosystem. Streaming supplies personalized choice, short-form video makes music part of daily screen use, radio retains a music-first role, games provide another listening setting, and platforms report discovery across borders. The measurement periods and definitions differ, so each figure is most useful as evidence about its own channel and audience.