While music listening has witnessed a general decrease between 2016 and 2018 in the region, the percentage of nationals who report listening to music and those who do so daily, have increased during the 2021/22 period. Much like gaming and podcasts, music is predominantly consumed on phones by 62% of nationals in the region, a 20-percentage-point increase in 2018. This constitutes a shift in habit since 2018 as Television used to be the dominant platform for accessing music with half of nationals doing so, followed by online listening. Music listening on television dropped by 33 percentage points. Computers continue to be the least cited platform for music with only 7% of nationals listening to music on a computer in 2021-2022, a drop from 10% in 2018.
Figure 26: Podcast Listening
Podcast listening rates grew in 2021-2022 by 5 percentage points from what they were in 2018 (26% vs. 31%). This low growth rate is due to podcast listening rates dropping in Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Egypt and increase in Tunisia, Lebanon, Qatar and Jordan. Currently, Qatar records the highest percentage of nationals who listen to podcast with 73% in 2021-2022. Meanwhile, Egyptians remain the least to listen to podcasts with only 5 % in 2021-2022. Generally, the three gulf countries record the highest rates of podcast listening in 2021-2022. Phone remains the most cited medium for podcast listening among nationals across countries This is due to applications like apple podcast and Spotify, with nationals in gulf countries being the most likely to listen to podcast on their phones. Qatar is the only country where nationals listen to podcasts on their phones and online at equal rates. Podcasts, like other forms of media, are consumed primarily in Arabic by the large majority of nationals across in countries (between 62% in Egypt and 94% in UAE). Podcasts are listened to in English mostly by Emiratis and Lebanese nationals. The lowest rate of podcast listening in both English and Arabic is among Egyptians (due to the low rate of podcast listening among Egyptians in general)