Playlisting and the Demographic Destiny of Streaming

The 20,000 Foot View: With playlists representing streaming’s lingua franca, the dramatic shifts in consumption they are powering are rewriting the rule books on music marketing, music formats and revenue generation, all in one swoop. Though the rate of change is partially offset by the grandfathering of the download format and, in certain cases, the resistance of physical markets (Germany and Japan), the economics of playlist monetisation is a rude awakening for the industry at large. It has also created notable distinctions in audience consumption habits, meaning expectations in revenue must account for target audience and their format preferences.

Key Findings

           of all streams come from playlists            of UK subscribers say that playlists are replacing albums for them, while            say they are using curated playlists more than six months ago
• Playlist growth            slowed towards the end of            ‘Creating own playlists’ in            was            one percentage point up on            at           
• Beast mode,            work-out playlist, was the fastest            on Spotify, rising at            YoY            2017
• Global Top            second most followed playlist on            grew            in 2017
           of paid streamers are listening to playlists compiled by the streaming platform of their choice compared to just            of free streamers            year olds are most likely to create playlists
• Just            of            users aged            plus identify as            curated playlists

Companies and brands mentioned in this report: Apple Music, Deezer, Spotify, YouTube