As large parts of the country go under a lockdown forcing people to stay at home, audiostreaming services such as Gaana, JioSaavn, Spotify and YouTube Music are witnessing a spike in the time that users are spending by listening to music and podcasts, shows a study.
The first fortnight of March has seen a 42% increase in the time spent collectively on the streaming services, according to the study by the passive OTT audio audience measurement service of Kantar and VTION. While more stringent measures like statewide shutdowns were announced in recent days, several states had announced closure of educational institutions and put other curbs from early March due to the Covid-19 outbreak.
The data suggest that the crisis had not just changed an average Indian’s life, but also changed her entertainment consumption patterns.
A large number of new users, or consumers who were not tuning into streaming audio apps earlier, have started hopping on to these services in March.
“We are seeing a jump in new users as well as time spent across cities and platforms,” said Hemant Mehta, managing director-Insights Division & chief strategy officer, Kantar (South Asia). “While Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru are driving the time spent, Pune and other cities are also not lagging behind. Music is a good companion in times like these.”
The age group of 18-24 years has shown the highest jump in the time spent — over 50% — as the closure of colleges has made youngsters look for online entertainment options. Consumers in the 25-34 age group have shown a 30% growth in usage.
Compared with February, the study has shown an over 50% jump in the incidents of listening in the afternoons — between 2 pm and 6 pm. Late night listening, post-midnight till 6 am, has registered a spike of over 80%.
“We are clearly seeing emergence of new ‘peaks’ or primetime. As the consumers don’t have to go to college or work the next day, they are spending more time on these apps late night,” Mehta added.
The OTT audience measurement service was launched last month by WPP-owned media measurement platform Kantar and audience measurement technology company VTION.
The first report had put Gaana, the music streaming service owned by Times Internet, at the top of the category with a 30% market share in January, followed by Jio-Saavn (24%), Wynk and Spotify (15% each), and Google Play Music (10%). Times Internet is part of Bennett, Coleman & Co Ltd that publishes The Economic Times.
The study is based on a sample size of more than 9,000 consumers across top nine cities.
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