2 out of 10 Norwegians say that radio was the medium where they last discovered new music they liked – compared to 3 out of 10 just two years ago. In the same period, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok have more than doubled. In 2020, 6 percent said that it was on social media that they discovered new music. Now this has increased to 13 percent. – The change in people's media habits is now hitting music creators hard, says communications director at TONO, Willy Martinsen.
/ 29/06/2022 / Willy MartinsenThe figures are taken from the survey «Polaris Nordic Digital Music Survey», which has been conducted this year for the sixth time in eight years, and which measures music use and habits among a representative population sample in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. It is the analysis company YouGov who conducted the survey in collaboration with, and on behalf of, the Norwegian collective management company TONO and TONO's Danish and Finnish sister societies. One of the questions the companies asked Norwegians was where they last discovered new music they liked.
– Radio is still the place where Norwegians are most aware of new music. However, the medium is losing ground to Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and other social media. In just two years, the proportion who discover new music on the radio has fallen from 30 to 20 percent. This is dramatic, especially if we look back a little further, to the survey from 2015 where 36 percent said that it was a radio channel that made them aware of new music they liked, says Willy Martinsen in TONO.
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YouTube, TV and recommendations from friends have also become less important in the last two years. This means that the only area that is growing is social media such as Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. Such media platforms have collectively doubled in two years, from 6 to 13 percent. If the trend continues over the next two years, they will compete with radio as the most important place where Norwegians generally become aware of new music. The trend also follows other media developments, and offers opportunities and challenges for many Norwegian music creators and artists.
– NRK is required to play a certain proportion of Norwegian music, and local radio stations are happy to promote local, smaller artists and creators. In the user-generated, international social media platforms, creators and artists compete even more strongly with foreign music. This may mean that it will be more difficult for Norwegian music to reach the Norwegian music audience in a broad and visible way. At the same time, it is also clear that for creators and artists who perhaps primarily target a young audience, social media will be important arenas to use., says Martinsen.
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Radio is strongest among those over 30, and strongest among those between 50 and 65. Here, 36 percent discover new music on the radio, followed by the 40-49 age group with 25 percent. Among those between 18 and 29, only 6 percent say they last discovered new music on the radio, while 14 percent in the same age group say TikTok.
A full 30 percent of those between 12 and 17 say they last discovered new music on TikTok. YouTube also holds a strong position among young people, with 15 percent saying they last discovered new music there, while 9 percent of young people say they last discovered new music on the radio.
Read more: "Norwegians top the list of paying for music streaming" (tono.no, June 3, 2022)
The Polaris Digital Music Survey has been conducted six times: in 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2020 and 2022. The survey has been conducted by the research institute YouGov since 2015 on behalf of the Nordic collective management companies TONO (Norway), Koda (Denmark) and Teosto (Finland). A total of 1013 Norwegians aged 12-65 were interviewed using the CAWI methodology in the period 10-20 March 2022. Read the survey here:
https://www.tono.no/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/TONO_Digital-Music-in-the-Nordics-2022_Report.pdf
TONO was founded in 1928 and is a non-profit cooperative owned and managed by authors (composers and lyricists) and music publishers, and on their behalf manages the economic copyrights in the music they have created. TONO grants permission for the use of protected music, for example on radio, TV, the internet, concerts and cinemas for a fee, and transfers its financial results each year to the rights holders in music that has been played publicly. TONO has more than 38,000 members in Norway, but also works for millions of authors and music publishers from around the world. TONO gives music creators an economic basis to be able to create new music, and collects and simplifies the licensing of protected music to music users. TONO had a turnover of NOK 843,9 million in 2021.
Willy Martinsen, Communications Director at TONO, willy.martinsen@tono.no; Tel. +47,909 65 254
(The text was updated with a minor linguistic improvement in the last quote on July 12, 2022. No figures have been changed from the original publication)