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But that doesn’t mean everyone is taking to vacations. In fact, there are now more than 1.3M quarantine themed playlists on Spotify globally, and some of the most popular track additions between May 5-July 30 include: “Stuck With U” by Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber, “Bored In The House” by Tyga and Curtis Roach, “Be Kind (with Halsey)” by Halsey and Marshmello, “Lockdown” by Anderson Paak and fresh off Taylor Swift’s new album, her track “exile” with Bon Iver. And we’d be remiss if we didn’t offer a special shoutout to those quarantining solo who may have been the ones adding Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)” to these playlists — we hear you!
Here’s a round-up of other trends we’re seeing globally – note we’ve listed the timeframe for each trend.
- Happier vibes: We’ve noticed a shift in the overall valence – or “vibe” – of the music listeners are streaming around the world. In July, we saw our listeners streaming more upbeat music compared to previous months. If July was the “happiest” month so far in 2020 then we can point to April as the month where listeners were streaming “sadder” or more downtempo tracks.
- Road trip, anyone? With road trips more popular, we’ve seen a 92% increase in the creation of road trip playlists from June to July. And which countries have created the most road trip playlists? The United States came in first, followed by the UK, Australia, Canada and Germany.
- Popular songs added across these road trip playlists include: “Watermelon Sugar” by Harry Styles, “Here Comes The Sun” by the Beatles, “Party in the USA” by Miley Cyrus and wind-down-the-window-and-belt-it-out jams like “Don’t Stop Believin’” by Journey, “Livin’ On A Prayer” by Bon Jovi, “Hey Ya!” by OutKast and “Life is a Highway” by Rascal Flatts.
- Podcasts also made their way onto road trip playlists. Among the most-added shows: Stuff You Should Know, Crime Junkie, My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark and Ted Talks Daily.
- Among road trip playlists curated by Spotify, Classic Road Trip Songs and 70s Road Trip are currently streaming the most.
- Showing that many listeners are on the move, we’ve seen users stream music and podcasts in offline mode more in July compared to other months, with a 24% increase.
- Let’s go (nowhere) on a staycation: Many people are likely staying close to home rather than travelling for vacations and we’ve seen nearly a 120% increase in the creation of “Staycation” themed playlists from June to July.
- Popular picks for staycationers trying to capture vacation vibes through music include: “Summer Clothes” by Marc Scibilia, “Island In The Sun” by Weezer, “Summertime Magic” by Childish Gambino, “Kokomo” by the Beach Boys, “The Boys Of Summer” by Don Henly, “Paradise” by Bazzi, “Could You Be Loved” by Bob Marley & The Wailers, “Take Me Home” by Bryce Vine and “Señorita” by Camila Cabello and Shawn Mendes.
- The United States takes the top spot in creating staycation playlists, followed by the UK, Brazil, Canada and Ireland.
- Is anyone bored? Yes. It turns out life has many feeling a little restless; more than 127,000 playlists have been created with “bored” or “boredom” in the title between May 5-July 30.
- Top songs include: “I Don’t Care” by Ed Sheeran and Justin Bieber, “when the party’s over” by Billie Eilish, “High Hopes” by Panic! At The Disco and “The Less I Know The Better” by Tame Impala.
- Streaming with friends: And while social distancing remains in effect in many parts of the world, we’ve seen listeners come together via Spotify’s Group Session feature that enables Premium listeners around the world to tune into the same playlist or podcast simultaneously.
Check out Spotify’s blog, For the Record, for even more details around the trends, we’re currently seeing on Spotify!
