ROMIR: 85% of Russian City Dwellers Use Music Streaming Services

ROMIR continues to study the attitudes of Russians towards music streaming services. According to the 2025 survey, 85% of residents in large cities use these services. The music catalog and availability of new releases continue to be important factors for listeners when selecting a streaming service. However, competition between services has increasingly shifted to product and technological aspects.

Most music streaming users (78%), spend an average of over half an hour per day using these services. Yandex Music is the most popular platform, with 59% of users. VK Music follows closely with 52%, especially among the 18-24 age group. MTS Music has 10% of users, while Sound and Music on Odnoklassniki (lit. Classmates) each have 9%. Foreign services like Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, and Soundcloud account for 19% of the market share.

Almost all streaming users (87%) rely on algorithms for personalized music recommendations from services like 'My Wave', 'Mix', and 'Power of Sound'. These algorithms provide a convenient way for users to listen to music, especially when they are busy or don't have time to search for specific tracks. Most often, people turn to these recommendations during household activities (50%), on the go (46%), and slightly less frequently during walks and at work (23% and 22%, respectively). In 15% of cases, they may even be turned on while meeting friends, at sports training (14%), or before going to bed (12%).

Almost half of streaming service users (48%) find that Yandex Music algorithms best match their music preferences. VK Music comes in second (32%), with MTS Music, Sound, and Music in Odnoklassniki all scoring around 5%.

In addition, one of the key factors in choosing a music streaming service was the availability and convenience of the service on different platforms. Users often prefer to listen to music through mobile applications (51%), while listening to the web version from a smartphone is less common (25%). Smart speakers are also used by a significant number of listeners (29%). According to half of the respondents, Yandex Music offers the most convenient options for listening on different platforms and devices (50%), followed by VK Music (32%). Other services received less than 5% of the votes.