Spotify reveals the trends of our (quarantined) summer

Based on Spotify data pulled between April 17-May 17, listeners are soundtracking activities from gardening to homeschooling to painting to dyeing their hair. And let’s not forget cleaning: we’ve seen a more than 40% increase in listeners around the world creating playlists to enthusiastically clean their homes to (and not-so-enthusiastically, based on TLC’s “No Scrubs” being a popular song choice in these playlists). 

For Filipinos in particular, popular song additions to “cleaning” themed playlists include “Shake It Off” by Taylor Swift, “Party in the U.S.A.” by Miley Cyrus, “thank u, next” by Ariana Grande, “IDGAF” by Dua Lipa, and “Shut Up and Dance” by WALK THE MOON.  

Listeners may also be in search of learning new craft skills: we’ve seen a 125% increase in streaming of the podcast “Just Wanna Quilt” and a more than 60% increase in the podcast “WeCrochet.” Let creativity soar!

Here’s a round-up of some of the trends we’re seeing. You’ll also find the stats HERE on Spotify’s blog, For the Record:

• Hair gone wild: We’ve seen about a 50% increase in the creation of playlists to inspire people while dealing (struggling?) with hair maintenance. We determined this by looking at key words in playlist titles, including “haircut” “dyeing hair” and “hair dye.” 
  • Some popular song additions to all these hair-themed playlists include: “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. 

• Homeschool hysteria: It seems parents and students are turning to music to get through the challenges of homeschooling. We’ve seen a more than 1,000% increase in the creation of homeschool-themed playlists. 
  • Popular tracks added to these playlists include: “Supalonely” by BENEE and Gus Dapperton, “Sucker” by Jonas Brothers, “Circles” by Post Malone, and “Don’t Start Now” by Dua Lipa.  
  • It’s not all work and no play, though; we’ve seen a more than 1000% jump in playlists being created around Nintendo’s popular Animal Crossing: New Horizons, a family-friendly life simulation video game that’s providing an escape. 

• People are exploring their creativity: 
  • We’ve seen an increase of about 40% in coloring-themed playlists being created globally. 
  • And a more than 90% increase in painting-themed playlists being created. Ed Sheeran’s “Shape Of You” is a popular song pick in these; shoutout to those painting nude portraits! 
  • Listeners have been turning to podcasts to get the arts and crafts juices flowing; we’ve seen a more than 125% increase in streaming of “Just Wanna Quilt” and a more than 60% increase in “WeCrochet.” 

• Working from Home is better with music: We’ve seen a more than 1,400% increase in working-from-home-themed playlists created between April 17-May 17 (compared to the first ten days in March).
  • The most added track to these playlists is “Work From Home” by Fifth Harmony (feat. Ty Dolla $ign). 
  • Other popular songs added to these playlists 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. 

• Baking is the new “Ommmm…”: We’ve seen a 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. 
  • Listeners created approximately 225% more banana bread-themed playlists between April 17 and May 17. There are now more than 2,750 banana bread playlists on Spotify.

• People are channeling their inner plantitos and plantitas: We’ve seen a more than 430% increase in the creation of gardening-themed playlists on Spotify. 
  • 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.   
  • Podcasts are providing inspo, too: the most popular gardening-themed podcasts on Spotify over the past month are: “The Joe Gardener Show”, “Epic Gardening: Daily Growing Tips and Advice” and “The RHS Gardening Podcast”

• Listeners have been busy cleaning: Yes, cleaning. We’ve seen about a 40% increase in cleaning-themed playlists being created, and a more than 65% increase in streaming of those playlists in the past month. 
  • On Spotify, users have created more than 940,000 cleaning playlists. 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.
  • Spotify’s popular “Cleaning Kit” playlist has seen about a 30% increase in streaming. 

• People are trying to recreate those summer vibes: As the weather warms up in parts of the Northern Hemisphere, listeners are investing time in creating a soundtrack with the right summer vibes. We’ve seen an increase of about 245% in summer-themed playlists being created, globally.  

Unless otherwise stated, all data was collected between April 17-May 17, 2020. Where percentage increases are shown, we compared data from April 17-May 17 to the last week in February, 2020. Data is global unless otherwise stated.