Are Music Streams Declining Due to Coronavirus?

What are Spotify users listening to?

As every industry is taking hits to their business due to the continuous spread of the Coronavirus, music is not being excluded. While it makes sense for music streams to be up with the masses sitting inside all day, the opposite is actually occurring. Recent reports reveal the most popular songs are being streamed less by those in highly affected countries. Seemingly, Italy is one of the countries. 

Before the Italian prime minister announced a national quarantine, the top 200 most streamed songs on Spotify averaged 18.3 million total streams per day. Compare this February average with the post-March 9th quarantine, the 200 most popular songs have yet to surpass 14.4 million. This decline results in a 23% drop in the top 200 streams on Tuesday, March 17th compared to that of Tuesday, March 3rd. 

Spotify does not disclose overall streams, therefore the correlation between the decrease in the top 200 streams does not mean people aren’t necessarily listening. Other plausible factors could suggest people are just listening to different or older music. Consequently, Fridays and Saturdays are the most popular days for streaming… however the curfews implemented by several states which have affected bars, could also be a result of the decline. 

In the US on March 17th, the total Spotify streams for the top 200 songs fell to 77 million. This number is the lowest for any Tuesday in 2020. Trends appear similar for the overall top-200 streams in other countries, which are also experiencing a decline in the UK, France, and Spain. 

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