That Eric Alper

Nielsen Music, the U.S. and Canadian music industry’s leading consumption measurement service, reports that overall time spent listening to music in Canada is up 20% since 2013; for teens, the lift is even higher at 40%. According to the newly released Nielsen Music 360 Canada report, the shift comes as music consumption on tablets and smartphones reaches an all-time high and streaming music is growing.

The Nielsen Music 360 Canada Study is a comprehensive in-depth study of consumer interaction with music in Canada. Data for the study was collected April 12-27, 2015 among 3,500 consumers ages 13+. Surveys were conducted online using a third party panel and data was weighted to the Canadian census population based on age, gender, race, education and household size.

The premiere music performance monitoring service also noted that 90% of Canadians report listening to 24 hours of music a week, and 95% of Canadian teens listened to an average of 31 hours of music a week. Most listen to music in the background while doing other activities, notably teens who spend one third of their music time while doing other leisure activities like playing video games, reading, etc.

The Nielsen Music 360 Canada report also looks at the ways technological shifts are impacting consumption, pushing streaming volume up 94% since Nielsen, the sole streaming performance monitor in Canada, began tracking streaming activity in July 2014. Canadians who reported streaming music in the past year has grown to 71%, with Teens spending twice the amount of listening time streaming music as the general Canadian population with YouTube/Vevo being the key driver to how they are discovering new music. Both Teens and Millennials value the social aspects of streaming services, but Teens more commonly discover music through friends or relatives.

Millennials are adopting Spotify over twice as rapidly as the total while Teens more often use Google Play. Francophones generally stream less than the general population, but they are more inclined to use Galaxie Digital. On the whole, however, Radio remains the top format for discovery, with 2/3 of Canadians using radio to discover new music.

Among music listeners, at least half of all smartphone and computer owners use a digital music service on their device. 74% of Canadian teens own a smartphone and they are more likely to use these mobile devices to listen to music than other generational groups. And what are they listening to? While most music listeners in Canada select Rock or Pop, Canadian teens are listening to dance, hip hop and rap.