Spotify Wrapped: Spotify reveals new listening trends in 2020

That’s a wrap, folks. Spotify’s highly anticipated ‘Spotify Wrapped’ dropped last week, revealing the most memorable listening moments of 2020.

As expected, Spotify Wrapped gave us an overview of the most popular individual artists, songs, albums, and podcasts of the year. However, outside of these familiar categories, Spotify also reviewed some of the newer listening trends that shaped streaming in 2020.

Podcast Trends

Podcasts were huge in 2020. According to Spotify, global total monthly active users who listened to podcasts in September 2020, increased by 108% (compared to the previous year). Podcasts also appealed to a wider audience this year, with more people aged 18-24 listening for the first time.

In terms of genres, we know that podcasts cover a wide variety of topics that appeal to listeners’ diverse interests. This year, consumption of Spotify genres surged between January and November. News & Politics podcast listening grew by a whopping 140%, health podcasts increased by 201% and by 81% for Educational podcasts.

Here are the genres that listeners were most drawn to in 2020:

• Society & Culture
• Comedy
• Lifestyle & Fitness
• Arts & Entertainment ranks
• Education

Playlist Trends

With more people socially distancing and working from home, Spotify reported big changes in the way people stream and create playlists.

• 1,400%+ increase in work-from-home themed playlists
• Approximately 50% increase in DIY stylists creating at-home haircut playlists
• Creation of garden-themes playlists grew by more than 430%
• Nearly 40% increase in cleaning-themed playlist creation
• Streaming via gaming console grew by 51%
• Streaming via desktop grew by 26%
• Streaming via speaker grew by 59%

This year also called for Black voices to be amplified. On Spotify, the embrace of new voices and perspectives, and the support of the black community was reflected in the consumption for the ‘Black Lives Matter’ playlist, with 64 million streams in 2020. Additionally, nearly 65,000 playlists were created by Spotify users titled ‘BLM’ or ‘Black Lives Matter’. This support is further reflected as Spotify reported that 55% of users aged 16 to 40 years old said they’ve been listening to more music in the past few months, as 2020 world events impacted their consumption.

Read here for Spotify’s full 2020 Wrapped Global Top Lists

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