Covid-19 pandemic, lockdowns led to drop in digital music streaming, says study
- On average, audio music consumption decreased by more than 12% after the World Health Organization (WHO) pandemic declaration on March 11, 2020: Study
Among most things that took the downfall for the Covid-19 pandemic which includes human life, economy, music streaming services also seemed to have suffered, a recent study published in the INFORMS journal, 'Marketing Science' suggests.
The research has revealed that during the Covid-19 pandemic people resorted to video platforms instead of music owing to loss of travel or mobility.
The researchers also found that music consumption through video platforms was positively associated with the severity of Covid-19, lockdown policies and time spent at home.
Usually people take to music, preferably the digital streaming sites on their way to and back from work, while going anywhere, at gyms et al. However, during the pandemic all of these were closed and people shifted to video platforms instead, the study said.
"On average, audio music consumption decreased by more than 12% after the World Health Organization (WHO) pandemic declaration on March 11, 2020. As a result, during the pandemic, Spotify lost $838 million of revenue in the first three quarters of 2020," said Jaeung Sim of Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). "Our results show that human mobility plays a much larger role in the audio consumption of music than previously thought."
The study, 'Virus Shook the Streaming Star: Estimating the Covid-19 Impact on Music Consumption,' conducted by Sim alongside Daegon Cho also of KAIST, Youngdeok Hwang of City University of New York and Rahul Telang of Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), looked at online music streaming data for top songs for two years in 60 countries, as well as Covid-19 case and lockdown statistics and daily mobility data, to determine the nature of the changes.
"Despite the common expectation that the pandemic would universally benefit online media platforms, we found that it adversely impacted music streaming services," said Telang of Heinz College at CMU. "Our findings imply that the substantially changing media consumption environment can put streaming music in a fiercer competition against other media forms that offer more dynamic and vivid experiences to consumers."
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Business NewsNewsWorldCovid-19 pandemic, lockdowns led to drop in digital music streaming, says study
First Published:19 Feb 2022, 06:11 PM IST
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