Filipinos are music savvy individuals, and the National Research Council of the Philippines (NRCP) conducted a study to prove this claim. According to a study from May 2024, Filipinos spend, on average, 126 minutes — or a little more than two hours — a day listening to music, making it the longest duration of music consumption globally.
The study does not explicitly state why Filipinos have such high music consumption However, users on the internet have owed their music listening activity due to the worsening traffic in the country, making music simply a means to pass time. One user from X (formerly Twitter) commented in response to the report, “Kasi stuck sa traffic so much?” while others added to the sentiment by responding “We just need all the possible escapes, such as music, to get away from reality that living here sucks.”
The NCRP also encouraged Filipino listeners to support the music industry, which found that music industry employees earn less than P20,000 a month.
Dr. Maria Alexandra Chua, a professor at the University of Sto. Tomas Conservatory of Music, who leads NRCP’s Musika Pilipinas project, says, “Music is more than a means of entertainment — it is the people’s way to communicate feelings, resonate their stories and build on their emotions.” The music industry, she adds, is also a way to represent the country through creating, producing, reproducing, distributing or consuming music — and from these activities the Philippine economy benefits, she says.