Music Listening in Finland 2024: Finns prefer to listen to their self-created playlists and to radio

In Finns’ everyday music listening, radio and Spotify are by far the most common channels. Spotify’s share is about 90 per cent of music streaming service use.Nearly half of Finns (43%) prefer listening to music through streaming services, using playlists they have created themselves. Picking one song at a time is the favourite listening method of nearly one sixth (16%) of the respondents.

More than half of Spotify users listen to both ready-made playlists and playlists that the service recommends to them. One in four Finns listen to playlists created by friends, especially in younger age groups.

Among those under 25 years of age, 60 per cent find new music through TikTok.  In all age groups, one in four streaming service users find new songs on TikTok.One in three Finns find new songs on the radio – this is especially true among those over the age of 20.

Listening to complete albums continues to decrease. Complete albums, from start to finish, are listened to in streaming services at least occasionally by 45 per cent of Finns, which is six percentage points less than in 2020. Streaming service podcasts have steadily increased their popularity: 40 per cent of Finns listen to them at least once a month (2020: 34%).

The ways in which Spotify or similar streaming services are used. Music Listening in Finland 2024 survey.

Music streaming in the car and with a phone has increased

Devices used for listening to music in Finland and their popularity in 2024. Music Listening in Finland 2024 survey.

In all age groups, the most popular device for listening to music is the car radio. The key advantages of listening to the car radio is that it is easy and convenient. However, listening to Spotify or other similar streaming services in the car has grown systematically over the past five years. The age group that most frequently streams music in the car through a dedicated service is 13–18-year-olds (61%), while only 8 per cent of 66–75-year-olds do this.

Listening to music with a phone is still increasing in older age groups, but no longer by leaps and bounds. Almost all 13–18-year-olds listen to music with their phone, but among 66–75-year-olds, only one in three do so. In 2024, approximately 72 per cent of all Finns use their phone to listen to music.

Sources of music listened to by Finns in the past week and in the past six months. Music Listening in Finland 2024 survey.

Radio, YouTube and Spotify (free or subject to a charge) reach more than half of Finns every week and approximately 80 per cent of Finns over a six-month period. The subjective estimates of the respondents are close to the information produced on the basis of other data, although listening to Yle’s radio channels is significantly more frequent than according to the subjective estimates.

“The survey indicates that the regular and occasional use of different music sources has remained nearly at the same level in recent years. We are currently living in a period of a slow, steady change, where the habits already fully adopted by younger age groups are spreading to older age groups,” says Kari Tervonen.

According to Tervonen, we may still see technological breakthroughs during this decade, even though a clear revolution is not visible, at least not yet.

“Technological breakthroughs will definitely also be reflected in music consumption and listening habits in the future.”

Teosto’s and IFPI Finland’s Music Listening in Finland 2024 survey provided information about changes in Finns’ music listening habits over the longer term for the 11th time. The lead researcher was Kari Tervonen, Omnicom Media Group’s Roadmap Director, supported by Johanna Laitinen from Teosto and Tommi Kyyrä from IFPI Finland. The results of the survey were presented at the Music x Media event for professionals in Tampere on 4 October 2024.