Contents
- Music streaming of classical repertoire statistics: audience reach and genre position
- Music streaming of classical repertoire statistics: listener ages and engagement
- Music streaming of classical repertoire statistics: discovery through streaming
- Music streaming of classical repertoire statistics: listening motivations and mood
- Classical music streaming: Deezer listening frequency, playlists and audience shifts
- Sources
Music streaming of classical repertoire statistics: audience reach and genre position
Classical music’s reputation as a niche genre does not tell the whole story. A 2019 MIDiA Research report, released with IDAGIO, said 35% of surveyed consumers listened to classical music. The finding came from an online survey of 8,000 adult music consumers in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, Denmark, Sweden, Mexico and South Korea. The release described the result as a share of the “global adult population,” but the survey covered those eight markets; it should be read as survey evidence, not as a worldwide census.
The same survey indicated that classical listeners were not confined to older age groups: 30% were under 35. The report separately put the 25–34 age group at 31%. These figures describe overlapping ways of looking at the same listener population, not separate groups that can be added together. Together, they challenge the idea that classical listening belongs only to older audiences, while remaining specific to the survey and its markets.
Source: IDAGIO and MIDiA Research, “The Classical Music Market: Streaming’s Next Genre?”.
Music streaming of classical repertoire statistics: listener ages and engagement
Platform data add a different kind of evidence: observed activity among people using a particular service. In its 2020 report, the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), Deezer and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra said the number of Deezer Classical listeners worldwide rose 17% between April 2019 and April 2020. The report also said that, in a typical month, 52% of Deezer’s Classical listeners streamed on at least 15 days. Deezer Classical listeners streamed 4.4% more music on average than other Deezer users, although the report passage supplies no absolute stream count.
The age profile shifted in some playlist contexts during the 2020 lockdown period. For Deezer’s Classical playlist, the under-35 share of listeners was 54% during lockdown in the UK, compared with 49% over the preceding 12 months. The report also described the age group with the most streams changing from 36–45 to 26–35. These are playlist and platform observations over defined periods; they do not establish that the age profile changed for all classical listeners.
A more specific example is the UK Classical for Sleep playlist. Under-35s accounted for 51% of its plays from March through May 2020, compared with a usual yearly average of 42%. Listeners under 20 contributed 20% of streams during the lockdown context. The same report found that under-35s made up 36% of listeners to Deezer’s Feel Good Classical playlist and generated 53% of streams on Classical Goes Pop from June 2019 to June 2020. Age composition therefore varied across playlists, reinforcing the value of treating each figure as a finding about its named listening context.
Source: BPI, Deezer and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, “The Classical Revival in 2020”.
Music streaming of classical repertoire statistics: discovery through streaming
In the 2019 MIDiA survey, 42% of listeners said they were discovering music through streaming services. That finding suggests streaming had a role in music discovery among the surveyed listeners. The release does not give a narrower denominator for this particular percentage, so it should not be restated as a share of classical listeners alone.
Deezer’s breakdown of stream sources offers a more concrete look at how classical plays began on one service. From January through June 2020, playlists accounted for 44.4% of known-origin Deezer Classical streams worldwide. Albums accounted for 24.1%, artist pages 10.2%, and direct track selection 9.7%. Users’ own playlists or libraries contributed 5.8%; Smart Tracklist, 2.4%; and radio, 2.2%.
| Source of known-origin Deezer Classical streams | Global share, Jan–Jun 2020 |
|---|---|
| Playlists | 44.4% |
| Albums | 24.1% |
| Artist pages | 10.2% |
| Track selection | 9.7% |
| User playlist or library | 5.8% |
| Smart Tracklist | 2.4% |
| Radio | 2.2% |
The report excluded streams with an unknown origin and re-percentageed the remaining values. These shares therefore describe known-origin streams, not every Deezer Classical play. The global playlist share also concealed differences by country: playlists accounted for 54.5% of known-origin streams in Brazil, 47.5% in France, 46.2% in Germany, 42.9% in the UK and 40.9% in the US. For comparison, albums made up 25.9% in Germany, against the global share of 24.1%.
Sources: IDAGIO and MIDiA Research; BPI, Deezer and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
Music streaming of classical repertoire statistics: listening motivations and mood
Relaxation was the leading motivation measured in the 2019 IDAGIO and MIDiA study: 63% of classical music fans said they listened to classical music to relax. The release also reported that 14% of people listened to classical music to sleep. Both findings came from an online survey of 8,000 adult music listeners across the same eight markets. The release does not specify a narrower denominator for the sleep figure, so the two percentages should not be treated as directly comparable measures of the same subgroup.
Deezer’s 2020 playlist results show that mood-related listening coincided with large changes in activity during the early pandemic period. Streams on the platform’s Feel Good Classical playlist rose 424% in the third week of March 2020 compared with the prior week. In the UK, streams of Classical for Sleep increased 284% in March compared with February. These are relative changes in playlist streams over short periods, not measures of how many people listened or why they chose a playlist. The survey findings establish that relaxation and sleep were stated motivations; the platform figures show changes in use, but do not establish their causes.
Other Deezer changes were similarly time-bound. In the UK, streams of classical music by listeners aged 36–45 grew 12% between February and May 2020. Globally, Mozart’s streams increased 54% on March 22 compared with the same day one week earlier, and his streams in March were 38% higher than in February. A percentage increase can reflect a substantial shift in activity, but the cited report does not provide absolute counts in these comparisons.
Sources: IDAGIO, “New research suggests: 63% of classical music fans listen to classical to relax”; BPI, Deezer and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
Classical music streaming: Deezer listening frequency, playlists and audience shifts
Playlist data point to distinct listening patterns rather than one uniform classical audience. For the Deezer Classical playlist discussed in the report, women accounted for 27% of streams over the preceding 12 months; during lockdown from March through June 2020, their share rose to 31%. On the Best Classical of All Time playlist, women represented 24% of listeners during lockdown, compared with 21% over the June 2019–June 2020 period. These percentages concern different playlists and measures—stream share in one case, listener share in the other—and should not be combined.
The Best Classical of All Time playlist still drew its largest stream share from listeners aged 35–45, who accounted for about a quarter of its streams. By contrast, the under-35 share was prominent on Feel Good Classical and Classical Goes Pop. A playlist’s audience profile therefore depends on the selection being measured, as well as the period and whether the statistic counts listeners or plays.
The report also recorded shifts in named artists and composers. In March 2020, pianist Khatia Buniatishvili saw a 35% global monthly stream boost, while Martha Argerich’s music had 23% more plays in the report’s lockdown comparison. UK streams for Alexis French grew 19%. Mozart’s worldwide streams were 38% higher in March, with listeners aged 18–25 accounting for almost a quarter of those plays; in the UK, his streams rose 8% on the day after the March 23 lockdown announcement. These figures refer to different geographies, periods and comparison bases, so they illustrate varied platform activity rather than a single common trend.
Taken together, the available findings describe several layers of classical streaming: a sizeable surveyed audience across eight markets, survey respondents who report discovery through streaming, frequent listening among Deezer Classical users, and substantial playlist use in the platform’s known-origin streams. They also show meaningful variation by age, playlist, country and moment in time. None of these measures alone represents every classical listener or every streaming service.
Source: BPI, Deezer and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, “The Classical Revival in 2020”.