Study: New Zealand music fans shift to streaming but rely on radio & word of mouth for music discovery

New data from NZ On Air finds that New Zealanders are dumping CDs for streaming to hear their music at twice the speed in the last two years.

But they still rely on radio and word of mouth to find new music.

NZ On Air is the government-run body which funds NZ content for television, radio, music and online content.

In the Where Are The Audiences? report, the influence of streamed music is shown from the percentage of consumption rising for YouTube/Vimeo (70%  in 2018 from 66% in 2016) and Spotify (52% from 40%).

iHeartRadio rose to 25% from 18%, Apple Music dipped slightly to 22% from 23% and SoundCloud was up to 18% from 16%.

Amazon Music and TIDAL were at 1% each.

Music streaming had a 43% growth between 2014 and 2016, while growth since 2016 was 18%.

The report points out, “This change in behaviour is more representative of a direct substitution of one media for another as time spent listening to physical formats is also falling while time spent listening to streamed music continues to grow.

“Analysis also shows that it is younger New Zealanders (ie. under 40) who are dropping out most rapidly from the physical formats of music, with older New Zealanders more stable.  

“This, therefore, represents a sea change in music consumption in the present day as well as into the future.”

Streaming videos on demand (SVOD) has doubled since 2016.

But New Zealanders still spend the most time each day on traditional broadcast media – 2 ½ hours watching linear TV, 1 ½ hours listening to radio, compared to 62 minutes on SVOD.

Full report can be found HERE.