Spotify earworms: Trends for marketers to hop on to

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As people around the world continue adjusting to the increased indoor time, new trends have been seen emerging on Spotify. Users have begun soundtracking a wide range of activities such as gardening, home-schooling, painting, dying their hair and the most popular amidst all – cleaning, which has shown an overall 40% increase around the world.

Interestingly, a spike was seen in the number of people in search of learning new craft skills, with a 125% increase in streaming of the podcast “Just Wanna Quilt” and a more than 60% increase in the podcast “WeCrochet.”

Here is a round-up of some of the trends seen on Spotify as people stay home in Singapore:

1. Hair gone wild:

A 50% increase has been seen in the creation of playlists to inspire people while dealing with hair maintenance, with popular song additions such as “Complicated” by Avril Lavigne, “Sugar, We're Goin Down” by Fall Out Boy, “The Middle” By Jimmy Eat World, “High Hopes” by Panic! At The Disco, “Stressed Out” by Twenty One Pilots, and “Hair Cutter” by Animal Collective. In addition, Spotify pointed out how Germans were particularly fastidious about their hair, clinching first place in the highest rate of plays of hair-themed playlists from April 17 - May 17.

2. Home-school hysteria:

Parents and students are turning to music to get through the challenges of homeschooling. Spotify reported over a 1000% increase in the creation of homeschool-themed playlists. Popular tracks included “Supalonely” by BENEE and Gus Dapperton, “Sucker” by Jonas Brothers, “Circles” by Post Malone, and “Don’t Start Now” by Dua Lipa. Yet, it is never all work and no play with the public. More than 1000% jump in playlists revolving around Nintendo’s popular Animal Crossing: New Horizons was seen amongst Spotify users.

3. People are exploring their creativity:

A spike in playlists involving art has been recorded, with an increase of about 40% in colouring-themed playlists and more than 90% increase in painting-themed playlists being created globally. Ed Sheeran’s “Shape Of You” is a popular song pick in these, possibly the top choice for nude portrait painting! A shifting trend to increased usage of podcasts for the flow of art and craft juices has also been reported by Spotify.

4. Working from home is better with music:

Spotify has seen over a 1,400% increase in working-from-home-themed playlists created between April 17 - May 17, as compared to the first ten days in March. Its most added track in these playlists remains as “Work From Home” by Fifth Harmony (feat. Ty Dolla $ign). Other popular songs include “9 to 5” by Dolly Parton, “Blinding Lights” by The Weeknd, “Light On” by Maggie Rogers, “10,000 hours” by Dan + Shay (with Justin Bieber), “Boss Bitch” by Doja Cat, “Delicate” by Taylor Swift and “The Less I Know the Better” by Tame Impala. Sonatas from Beethoven and Bach are also popular additions, with pianist Lang Lang’s version of “Für Elise” a top classical pick.

5. Baking is the new “Ommmm…”:

Spotify stated seeing more than 120% increase in baking-themed playlists being created. Popular songs added include “Sunday Best” by Surfaces, “Banana Pancakes” by Jack Johnson, “Watermelon Sugar” by Harry Styles, “Sugar” by Maroon 5, and “everything i wanted” by Billie Eilish. A new trend on banana bread-themed playlists is also seen, with approximately 225% more increase in such playlists, leading to over 2,750 banana bread-playlists on Spotify.

6. People are tending to their homes and gardens:

More than 430% increase in the creation of gardening-themed playlists is recorded on Spotify. Some popular song picks in these playlists include “Gardening At Night” by R.E.M, “Avant Gardener” by Courtney Barnett, “Mr. Blue Sky” by Electric Light Orchestra, and “Sunflower” by Post Malone and Swae Lee. Interestingly, even gardening podcasts have been seen providing inspiration, the top picks over the past month being “The Joe Gardener Show”, “Epic Gardening: Daily Growing Tips and Advice” and “The RHS Gardening Podcast”.

7. Listeners have been busy cleaning:

Surprisingly, cleaning-themed playlists made it to this list, with more than 65% increase in streaming of such playlists in the past month. In fact, users have created more than 940,000 cleaning playlists on Spotify till date. Popular song choices include “Uptown Funk” by Bruno Mars and Mark Ronson, “No Scrubs” by TLC, “Roar” by Katy Perry, “Toxic” by Britney Spears, “Mr. Brightside” by The Killers, and “Work” by Drake and Rihanna. The in-house “Cleaning Kit” has also seen about a 30% increase in streaming.

Seems like music definitely plays a huge role in everyone’s life nowadays. What do you think?

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