Morgan Stanley's latest annual survey on audio listening habits shows that 50% to 60% of young people in the United States aged 18 to 44 listen to AI-generated music for about 2.5 to 3 hours a week, which is roughly equivalent to the entire length of the movie "Avatar." This is also the first time that the agency has included AI music-related questions in a relevant survey. The results were "quite surprising" to the analyst team.
The survey also pointed out that YouTube and TikTok are the main communication channels for AI music content, reflecting that short videos and video platforms have become the core entrance for AI music to penetrate into users’ daily lives.
Although the current consumption scenarios of AI music are mostly concentrated on open platforms and social media, the Morgan Stanley analyst team is still optimistic about the long-term benefit prospects of streaming media giants such as Spotify in the AI wave. It believes that AI will become a tailwind factor for Spotify's business development in 2026 and beyond. It is especially expected to become the basic technical capability for its promotion of "Personalization 2.0" strategy, further deepening and differentiating the recommendation system and user experience. The report points out that Spotify has significant advantages in global distribution scale, product innovation history, and machine learning application. These existing accumulations will help it continue to consolidate its platform position in the AI-driven music ecosystem.
In terms of content copyright and the recording industry, Morgan Stanley also maintains an optimistic attitude towards Warner Music Group, but it judges that AI concerts will bring more complex opportunities and risks in this field: on the one hand, with the influx of massive AI works into the market, the relative value of scarce classic catalog assets is expected to be further amplified; on the other hand, AI-generated content may also compete with first-line new works, changing the traditional "head content" logic of record companies. The report specifically mentioned that the cooperation between Warner and AI music company Suno is an important step in exploring the commercialization of AI music and is expected to open up licensing and monetization paths in the new ecosystem. Warner's stock price has experienced valuation compression during 2025, which partially reflects the market's expectations of AI risks. This also leaves room for re-rating after the future AI business model becomes clear.
Overall, Morgan Stanley's latest research shows a trend of rapid "daily adoption" of AI music among young people in the United States: without entering the main interface of traditional streaming media on a large scale, AI music has occupied users' ear time for several hours a week through video platforms and social networks. This consumption habit provides new growth imagination for platform parties and copyright owners, and it also forces the entire music industry to accelerate in product forms, distribution channels and business models to adapt to the era of deep integration of algorithm creation and personalized recommendations.