"The music industry is in the midst of a growth spurt that has led to 15-​year record revenues for the major label groups and continues to break new consumption records for the first half of 2018, reports Nielsen. Total album equivalent consumption, which includes physical and digital album sales, song sales and on-​demand audio and video song streams are up 18%."

"On-​demand song streaming activity is reaching new milestones, with volume surpassing 400 billion, which is offsetting declines in album and track sales. On-​demand audio streaming volume is up 45%, having already exceeded 268 billion so far in 2018, and on-​demand video streaming volume is up 35% year-over-year."

According to AudienceSCAN, 22.1% of U.S. adults listen to music or the radio through Pandora and 16.3% listen through Spotify. iHeart Radio is the go-​to place to listen to music or radio for 11.7% of U.S. adults and 7.6% use Apple Music (which includes Beats 1). Also, within the last six months, 64.3% of Streaming Music Service Subscribers used a mobile device to watch an online or streamed video.

"With streaming volume continuing to reach record levels in 2018, it is clear that streaming has become a daily activity for music fans. But the days of the week when listeners stream the most vary based on how they stream their music. Looking at the different ways that fans stream music, on-​demand audio, audio programmed or video streaming, there are differences in which days of the week are the most popular for each format. While Friday continues to carry the biggest share of weekly streams for both on-​demand and programmed audio (15.4% and 15.7%), video streams are heaviest on Saturdays (15.5%). As fans are flocking to hear their favorite new releases on audio streaming services on Fridays, there is a significant drop-​off in volume over the weekend on audio streaming services. For both on-​demand audio and programmed audio, Sunday is the lightest day of the week."

"Total album equivalent consumption continues to surge in 2018, surpassing 2017’s record figures. Overall album equivalent consumption increased 18.4% to 360 million units, up from 304 million during the same period in 2017. Leading the charge was substantial growth for on-​demand audio and video streaming, which grew a combined 42 percent. The increased activity helped offset continued declines in album sales, which declined 18% to 69 million units, and song sales, which slipped 27% to 223 million units."

"Insights from Nielsen Audio show that adult contemporary (AC) radio is broadening its influence as a mass appeal format and gaining popularity among millennials. Since the first half of 2016, AC has grown from the fifth to the third most-​listened to format among millennials (behind pop and country) during the first half of 2018."

According to AudienceSCAN, 45.8% of Streaming Music Service Subscribers fall within the age range of 17 to 34.

"In the top 50 largest population markets, Country ranks as the third most listened to format behind News/​Talk and Adult Contemporary. But on a national basis, across all markets, Country is the top-​ranked format, leading even News/​Talk in terms of total share of listening."

Streaming services can best be advertised to Streaming Music Service Subscribers through TV, social media and direct mail, according to AudienceSCAN. Last year, 65.5% of this audience took action after seeing a TV commercial, 59.8% reacted to ads on a social network and 59.4% were driven to action after receiving ads or coupons in their mailboxes. This audience is also 38% more likely than other adults to take action after seeing a pre-​roll video ad.

AudienceSCAN data is available for your applications and dashboards through the SalesFuel API. Media companies and agencies can access AudienceSCAN data through the AudienceSCAN Reports in AdMall.