Spotify’s 2020 report shows how morning listening routines have changed around the world

The quarantine has obviously brought in a change in our listening habits; people all around the world actually have time to finish a podcast, discover new music, and are actually depending on music streaming to get them through their isolation. Digital music streaming service Spotify just released their financial results for the first quarter of 2020 and in the process also revealed how the global pandemic has changed the way we stream audio content.

The report revealed that though Spotify added 6 million new users in the last quarter, starting late February the number of listeners saw a steady decline in countries like Spain and Italy, which were of course, some of the worst affected countries. But the report revealed that the morning listening habits across the world is experiencing a significant change, since every morning right now is a weekend morning. The change was seen more significantly in podcast streaming than in music, likely due to the fact that stay-at-home people don’t actually need commute music right now, but do need ambient music to manage their stress.

“Listening time around activities like cooking, doing chores, family time, and relaxing at home have each been up double digits over the past few weeks. Audio has also taken on a greater role in managing the stress and anxiety many are feeling in today’s unprecedented environment. Two in five consumers we surveyed in the US said they were listening to music to manage stress more than they typically do, which explains the recent rise we’ve seen in searches for “chill” and “instrumental,” the official statement revealed.

Spotify is also doing its bit to support the global creator community right now. A few weeks back Spotify announced that it has launched the Spotify COVID-19 Music Relief project, through which the company has partnered with organisations that offer financial relief to those in the music and creator community around the world. “We pledged to match dollar-for-dollar public donations made to these organizations, up to a total Spotify contribution of $10 million. On April 22, we also followed up by launching Artist Fundraising pick, allowing artists to highlight donations to support themselves or our music relief project. On the first day we saw more than 27,000 artists enable this feature on their profile page and there are approximately 50,000 currently using the feature,” the statement read.