Ukrainians’ Music Preferences 2026

Music remains an important part of Ukrainians’ everyday lives, but both listening habits and personal music preferences have changed significantly over the past few years. Streaming services are becoming the primary way people listen to music, while Ukrainian artists are increasingly taking the lead in listeners’ playlists. These are among the findings of the latest wave of the Gradus survey of Ukrainians’ music preferences.

Music to match the mood and a shift towards digital

For most Ukrainians, music is a situational companion: 43% of respondents listen to it from time to time when they are in the mood. Another 29% use their favourite tracks as a soundtrack for specific situations — while commuting, working out or cleaning. For almost one in five respondents, music plays constantly in the background at home, in the car or through headphones. Only 6% say music is almost absent from their lives.

At the same time, audiences are increasingly shifting to digital platforms. The most popular services for listening to music are streaming platforms Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube Music. Traditional media — radio and television — remain relevant for one-third of listeners, while a slightly smaller share still download music files to their devices or consume music content through messaging apps and social media.

Pop music tops the list of preferences

When it comes to genre preferences, pop remains the favourite among Ukrainians, listened to by more than half of respondents. Rock, metal and alternative music rank second by a considerable margin, followed by electronic and dance music. Classical music is chosen by only 19% of respondents.

Ukrainian content dominates

The most notable shift concerns language and cultural preferences. Ukrainian is now the primary language of songs and artists for the majority of respondents (69%). English-language content also remains an important part of Ukrainians’ musical landscape, while Russian-language music has lost significant ground.

The change goes beyond the language of the songs themselves. Some 63% of respondents say that the share of Ukrainian music in their playlists has increased over the past two to three years, indicating that this is becoming an established listening habit.

Artist preferences have changed as well. Almost half of Ukrainians most often listen to Ukrainian artists. European and American musicians remain an important part of the music landscape, but no longer occupy the leading positions in listeners’ preferences, while Russian artists have seen a significant decline in attention from Ukrainian audiences.

“Our data show that Ukrainians’ music preferences are changing both technologically and culturally. Streaming services are making music consumption more personalised, while Ukrainian content is increasingly becoming a natural choice for listeners. We can see that support for Ukrainian artists is moving beyond a situational response and gradually becoming an established consumption pattern. This, among other things, creates new opportunities for the development of the local music industry,” comments Evgeniya Blyznyuk, sociologist, founder and CEO of Gradus.

The study was conducted by Gradus using a self-administered questionnaire in the Gradus mobile application. The sample reflects the population structure of cities with more than 50,000 residents aged 18–60, excluding temporarily occupied territories and areas of active hostilities. Fieldwork was conducted on 16–17 July 2026. Sample size: 1,000 respondents.