Paul Lamere over at Music Machinery has done a data analysis of Spotify listening habits and has uncovered some very interesting results. Read over the entire analysis, but the part that I found most interesting was the sheer number of Spotify tracks that get skipped over. Only half of Spotify tracks make it to the finish line: 48.6% of Spotify tracks will be skipped before the song ends. As the title suggests, nearly one-quarter of tracks will be skipped in the first five seconds.
People are apparently very quick to judge a song nowadays, according to this. You have less than five seconds – or less time than it takes to get through the main arpeggio figure of “Stairway To Heaven” – to make an impression of the fickle modern listener.
I don’t really get it, myself. My Spotify habits would show a person that skipped very rarely, likely because when I use the service I’m listening to full albums or to gigantic playlists I use as background info. I think the last track I actually skipped was a Spiritualized song off of Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space, because it didn’t fit in with the vibe I was getting off of King Trevor’s Retro Funky Hour. Then again, a lot of people are apparently much more impatient, which perhaps explains why there are so many people who think that good music stopped being made around the turn of the 21st Century.
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