Music consumption behaviors across China vary by income levels and understanding the differences between different city tiers is critical to marketers according to the Nielsen Music 360 report.

72% of the general population in China listens to music for an average of 16 hours per week. The population with the highest average household incomes are the most engaged music listeners, spending more time and more money on music than the rest of the population according to Nielsen.

Tier 1 Chinese consumers, from Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, are 15% more likely to be music listeners than the general population. They spend more time listening to music – 19 hours a week on average – and more of their discretionary income on music. They were also the most likely to listen to English language music, particularly jazz, pop and rock.

57% of tier 1 respondents attend live music events, compared with 51% of the U.S. general population. And, 71% of tier 1 listeners in China listen to an online streaming service in a typical week, in line with 75% of U.S. music listeners.

74% of China’s tier-2 consumers are music listeners and are on par with the national average for listening hours per week.

Tier 3 consumers spend the least amount of time listening to music and allocate the least amount of their total entertainment spending on music; they are nearly as likely to listen on a smartphone as more affluent consumers.

Nielsen suggests that involvement in music-based sponsorships could be a solid way to reach Chinese consumers. Not only are they highly engaged with music, but they are generally favorable when a brand is involved, with the highest net favorability going to promotions that offer free music downloads or sweepstakes.

Also read: 7 Habits of China Online Shoppers

Since first half of 2013, China popular group buying websites like Nuomi.com, Meituan.com and 55tuan.com all expanded business in lower tier cities in China. Their market share now shows an increasing gap from other group buying websites who are still making efforts in tier-1 and tier-2 cities.

According to the latest data from the report of China group buying market statistics in August published on Tuan88.com, 55tuan and Lashou had 72.6% and 55.97% market share respectively in fourth and lower tier cities but  only 5.45% and 13.67% in first tier cities in August. Dianping, which concentrating on prosperous cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, accounted for 69.9% market share while in fourth tier city, it only accounted for 1.16%.

Also read: China Online Food Ordering Market in 2014

According to a report released by Dianping, a Yelp like top review website in China, tier two and three cities’ mobile internet growth speed surpassed tier one cities for the first time.It also showed that mobile consumers had become more localized and personalized, the need for services kept growing.

Dianping’s mobile life report in 2013 is based on mobile consumers in 22 cities, and data ranged from August 2012 to August 2013. By the end of Q2 2013, Dianping monthly traffic hit 2 billion, among which 70% were from mobile devices. Mobile dependent users has reached 75 million.

Dianping’s data showed that mobile traffic in Changsha grew 350% in the past year, more than two times in Shanghai. Changsha’s mobile internet growth rate ranked top in the 22 cities.

Besides, mobile users tended to search more about pharmacy, bank, park, internet cafe, movie theater, gas station, nail polish, etc. Cities showed their own features. Hangzhou, a slow pace city, coffee, tea house and bar were the hot search key words.