Newswire: 6/16/20
- With concerts cancelled and streaming down, most genres of music haven’t fared well during the pandemic, with one notable exception: country. According to streaming figures, U.S. residents are listening to less rock, hip-hop, dance, and Latin music—but since mid-March, they’ve listened to an average of 11.1% more country. (Bloomberg)
- NH: Stay-at-home orders haven’t been good for the music industry. Concerts are cancelled for the foreseeable future, and more time at home hasn’t translated into more listening. For the last 10 weeks, overall music streaming has been down by 3.4%, or about 550 million streams a week. Streams for dance, pop, hard rock, and hip-hop fell even faster. Many pop stars postponed April and May album releases, leaving fans facing a drought of new music.
- But the same hasn’t happened for country and bluegrass. Despite a shortage of new material, streams for these genres have seen up to double-digit growth. Years-old albums are resurfacing on the bestseller charts. In the last week of May alone, country music streams climbed 22.4%. The biggest winner has been country roots music (think: Woody Guthrie during the Great Depression and Dustbowl), which includes honky-tonk and Western swing, with streams up 22% compared to the previous two months.
- According to Bloomberg, this trend has inspired some music executives to speculate that the quarantine inspired analog-only country fans to jump on the streaming bandwagon. While this may be true, it’s not a surprise that country is faring better than other genres right now. As we explained back in 2013 (see “Country Makes a Comeback (Again)”), country has always done well during economic downturns. In times of difficulty and deprivation, country is comfort food for Americans--whether they’re looking to get lost in a story, connect with down-to-earth values, or listen to someone sing about hard times. Even within other genres, Americans are gravitating toward “softer” sounds: Streams for Fleetwood Mac, John Denver, and Bob Dylan are up, for instance, while streams for Queen and Slayer are down. People are looking to unwind, not headbang, Even during a pandemic, they’ll always have country.
