Spotify has released information that makes it easy to see how the coronavirus pandemic, working from home, and social distancing have impacted people's music listening habits. Some of these deductions are obvious, but there are surprises in the outcomes on both the user and business level for Spotify.
If there's any company we can count on to give us the most data-driven information about music, it's Spotify. The company is best known for being the foremost music streaming giant, but a lot of its success comes from its tendency to put data and technology first. Spotify has a knack for publicizing data in a weirdly entertaining way. It manages to dominate the trending topics on Twitter every year with its statistics-driven Year-In Review feature, for example. There's also the consistently impressive Discover Playlist feature that curates new music for each listener on a weekly basis using an algorithm that somehow manages to accurately predict a user's taste far more often than not.
This time, Spotify's using its data analysis expertise in the company's Q1 2020 financial report, which has a heavy focus on how the platform has performed amidst the pandemic. Unsurprisingly, our daily habits have changed but, at least for Spotify, that change has been for the better. The service offers both a Freemium, ad-supported model, and an ad-free subscription. Both tiers have shown major year-over-year growth with monthly active users and subscribers increasing by 31% (to 256 million and 130 million users, respectively). Due to the immense ubiquity of Spotify, it's easy to use its numbers and deduce a picture of how everyone has handled listening to music over these last few months.
Spotify's Data Shows We're Playing More Video Games
Spotify has apps on a wide range of devices from wearables to television sets. Its earnings report draws the reasonable conclusion that fewer people are listening to Spotify in cars or on wearables, presumably because people are traveling less frequently. However, listening to music at home has become far more common and the device of choice seems to be video game consoles. Both the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One offer the option to run the Spotify app in the background while playing games even for people who don't have a Spotify subscription. The company reported a 50% increase in listeners on these devices, saying they've ranked in the top 2 or 3 platforms over the last month.
Data Shows Stress Relief and Personal Growth Are More Important Now
Spotify's numbers indicate people's morning and daily routines have changed. The report amusingly describes these sorts of listening activities by saying "Every day now looks like the weekend." People are prioritizing music as they handle household chores and cooking, but listeners are also searching for "chill" music and instrumentals more. Podcasts related to wellness are more popular than before and a Spotify survey revealed 2/5 users intentionally use the platform for stress mitigation now.
For Spotify, this is all great news. The earnings report discusses the natural progression of how users on the free version of Spotify transition to the subscription model, indicating that providing value to the free users is the primary goal. As such, it's added things like a collection of playlists centered around household, daily tasks, expanding outward from the typical fitness or dance playlist themes. For us, it shows that we're coping with social distancing in a productive way. It's too easy to get caught in reading up on COVID-19 confirmed cases and sinking into a pit of depression. Instead, this data shows that tons of people are managing their new indoor lifestyles by focusing on wellness, recreation, and daily responsibilities with a good soundtrack in the background.
Source: Spotify