A survey conducted by Norstat on behalf of Aspiro Music shows that the use of streaming services on PCs and mobile phones results in people listening to more music. The survey also concludes that the range of music listened to increases, while users discover more artists and bands than they did before.

The survey, conducted in Norway in June, shows that one of three Norwegians have now streamed music, and users report that they discover new music and feel more up to date. 60 per cent say they feel more up to date on music, while 68 per cent listen to more music, and 72 per cent say they often find music they didn`t know about prior to using a streaming service.

“It’s natural that music habits change when people have easy access to millions of songs,” says Aspiro Music CEO, Per Einar Dybvik. “Streaming is growing rapidly, and this study shows that streaming makes people listen to more music than before. We believe that efficient and payment-based streaming services will lead to better economy for artists, record labels and rights holder’s long term, and that it will turn around recent years’ descending revenue trend. We see these results as strong indications that streaming increases both the total consumption of music, as well as broadening the range of music people listen to.”

When asked if people have streamed music, the difference between women and men is striking. In the survey, 43 per cent of male respondents have streamed music, compared to just 19 per cent of women. 28 per cent of women and 14 per cent of men don’t know what streaming means. There is also a big difference between people in urban and rural areas. 46 per cent of people in urban areas said they have streamed music compared to 21 per cent in rural areas.

The survey also concludes that streaming services reduce the extent of illegal music file-sharing. Over half of respondents (54 per cent) say that streaming causes them not to download music illegally any more.

Aspiro Music delivers music streaming services via its WiMP brand in Norway and Denmark, and also offers white-label services to partners. Aspiro focuses on delivering a quality service based solely on payment, in order to ensure revenues for the label, rights owners and artists. The service is ad-free and is available for PCs Macs, iPhone and Android handsets.