15 Percent of Country Music Listeners Called 'Top-Tier' Spenders

The Country Music Association’s latest consumer research took a deep look at top-tier music listener purchases with data revealing that spending for this audience is at $800* or more in the past 12 months – a level which applies to nearly 15 percent of overall Country Music listeners on which the study was based. These figures were released Tuesday during the final of three webinars presenting CMA’s extensive consumer research initiative.

“Across the board we saw higher levels of engagement and spending. There were very few areas where these fans were not over-indexing in terms of music consumption against the general Country Music listening audience, not just spending,” said Karen Stump, CMA Senior Director of Market Research.

This top tier of spenders, deemed the “Fan Economy,” was comprised of all ages; however, Millennials age 25-34 were significantly higher (32 percent) as a high spending group, compared to other age groups. Gen X made up the next largest segment with a share of 25 percent among the tier. Adult Millennials had the highest average music spending levels at slightly more than $1,100 (self-reported respondents).

Karen Stump

Overall, these high spenders are not only purchasing more, they are consuming more across the board and all channels, both paid and free music. Seventy-eight percent of this “Fan Economy” listen to Country Music on a daily basis, while among the general Country Music audience, about 50 percent listen on a daily basis.

The study uncovered a few notable differences, meaning significantly higher engagement among the super “Fan Economy” tier. This group reported twice the rate of daily listening across purchased digital music, satellite radio, and Spotify. Eighty-four percent spent money on concert tickets, compared to 50 percent among other Country Music listeners.

This group also yields another benefit to the format as social influencers of music. The “Fan Economy” listeners are super-users of social media and reported twice the level of everyday/constant use of Twitter, Snapchat, and Instagram compared to the total audience. They use social media to influence and learn about music and artists, with 86 percent agreeing that social media is a good way to engage with music and artists.

In webinars presented exclusively to CMA members May 3 and May 11, research has shown the Country Music audience continues to gain popularity across the board with the fastest growth in listeners occurring among non-whites, Hispanics, and Millennials. Additionally, research also indicates that Country Music fans, on average, spend more on music than fans of any other genre.
The data reported in this summary is from CMA’s proprietary consumer study, which was conducted among 3,330 adult consumers across the U.S. during October 2015. The study was conducted by a third-party research partner, The Futures Company. CMA Research is conducted on behalf of and provided exclusively to CMA members.