Alone Together: A Mixed-Methods Analysis of Spotify Listening During the COVID-19 Pandemic

What is the soundtrack to a global pandemic in the 21st Century? Music has been used to improve individual wellbeing during periods of uncertainty, discomfort and illness throughout history. Personal music consumption, in particular, has been used as a distraction, emotion regulation technique and communication tool. From 16th Century plagues to COVID-19, the method of consumption may have evolved but the instinct to turn to music has remained. This research brings together a novel dataset collected from anonymised Spotify users via the Spotify API comprising 25,800 playlists and 2,782,025 pieces of music. The playlists were all created by users between January 1st (before any countries announced lockdown) and July 29th 2020 (date of data collection). The playlists have been identified by their titles which all contain phrases relating directly to aspects of the pandemic (lockdown, coronavirus, COVID, social distancing). The tracks and the audio features, such as key, tempo, valence, danceability, energy etc. of each track contained within each playlist have been captured, as has any descriptive metadata users added to their playlists. The article presents a weighted analysis of the tracks that were included within COVID-19-associated playlists most frequently and the musical features that were included within playlists. Within the article, a series of typical COVID-19-associated tracks and playlists are suggested from the weighted analysis and Spotify’s audio features. Further to this, a thematic analysis of the descriptive metadata entered by listeners into their playlists reveals a multifaceted dataset displaying stark divides between optimistic or socially minded playlists compiled for personal and collective benefit, and heavily pessimistic, negatively valenced descriptions of plague and worldwide disaster.