‘Tis the (streaming) season
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Decorations, food, candles, family, and of course — music: it’s all part of the Christmas experience. Our streaming intelligence tells the story of how music streaming has become an integral part of celebrating the Christmas season all around the world thanks to the many connected devices throughout our lives.
Get in the spirit a little early with the Christmas Crackers playlist.
Streaming behaviour changes during the season. For tech brands, these insights can inform Christmas campaign strategies at a time of year when tech purchases are high. Reach an engaged audience in the holiday spirit by understanding how, when, and where people listen.
Download our Christmas infographic
Down to the Wire
Around the world, November marks the start of Christmas listening. With the UK firing up their Christmas playlists at the very end of November, there’s just enough time to get a little over 25 days of holiday-themed streaming.
Maximum Spirit
Although Christmas music is streamed regularly all over the UK, Nottingham leads the way on percentage of Christmas streams compared to regular listening. Meanwhile, London is all the way at the bottom.
Rockin’ Around the Christmas TV
For most of the year, people use Spotify while they’re commuting, while they’re working out, or while they’re sitting at their computers. Once family comes to town for the holidays, all that changes. Everyone takes off their headphones and gathers together for communal listening. Listening through connected TVs, smart speakers, and gaming consoles sees peak usage during the holiday season as families take to streaming all their favourite classics.
In fact, globally, listening session lengths increase by 10% from October through January, as people gather together to listen around their connected devices.
Women Take the Lead on Jingling all the Way
Women tend to go all-out on Christmas jams — they’re nearly 2X as likely to stream holiday music as men.
The New Classics
Nostalgia is a huge part of the season, and classics continue to have an extended shelf life — all hail Mariah Carey. But alongside those oldies-but-goodies, listeners are also enjoying iconic, but slightly more melancholy Christmas classics like The Pogues’ “Fairytale of New York,” alongside classics from Wham!, Bobby Helms, and more.
Get in the Spirit, Or Not
Turns out, plenty of people are avoiding traditional Christmas tunes and instead opting to soundtrack their season with other mood-appropriate music. Noise-cancelling headphones anyone?
Along with Christmas carols, romantic streams were also on the rise during the holidays — the “romantic” mood saw a 126% increase on Spotify from October to December 2018. It is the mood with the highest growth in streams during the holiday period, followed by “empowering” and “easygoing”. For marketers, it makes sense to consider targeting not only Christmas playlists, but also these moments.
These insights and ideas are just the tip of the seasonal iceberg. Get in touch with our team to see how your brand can make the most of the season by being a part of your audience’s Christmas soundtrack.
1 Spotify First Party Data, Global, 2018 2 Spotify First Party Data, UK, 2018 3 Spotify First Party Data, UK, 2018 4 Spotify First Party Data, Global, 2018 5 Spotify First Party Data, UK, 2018 6 Spotify First Party Data, UK, 2018 7 Spotify First Party Data, UK, 2018