University ranked as 26th ‘most musical’ in Spotify study

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By Ruge Li

We’ve listened to Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” more than most colleges, and we’re obsessed with Kanye West, according to a new study created by Spotify.

The music-streaming service recently completed a study, which tracked the listening patterns of American college students. The University was ranked as the 26th most musical university out of 40 considered. California Polytechnic State University was ranked as the most musical university.

Eliot Van Buskirk, Spotify inhouse data storyteller, said the most important concept to understand from the data is “distinctive” picks. 

“It means that this is the music that students at one school prefer disproportionately to the others,” Van Buskirk said. “If you just look at favorite music, you get a lot of the same music; looking at it this way highlights what makes each school unique.”

Out of all bands on Spotify, University students distinctively favor Phantogram, an electronic rock band, and distinctively dislike Lana Del Rey, a solo indie pop artist. 

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The study also put together a list of the most popular tracks and artists University students listen to overall, which is on their website.

Some students, such as Gabyliz Machado, freshman in DGS, said they would listen to some songs on the list because of their popularity. 

“It’s a good social function because you can look at what your friends are listening to,” Rohit Bhonagiri, sophomore in LAS, said. 

Additionally, the listening patterns show that the most popular genre at the University is pop, with nearly 60 percent of students listening to the genre. Almost 30 percent of students listen to dance music, but less than 1 percent of students listen to classical music. 

After analyzing the specific timestamps of listening patterns on an average day, Spotify saw that students listen to music the most between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m., and least between 5 a.m. and 7 a.m. 

By looking at when over 50 percent of students begin listening each morning and when it reaches below 50 percent each night, Spotify estimated that most students wake up at 10:15 a.m. and go to bed at 1:15 a.m.

Van Buskirk said the study may have an influence on what new music University students will listen to in the future.

“It’s always a possibility, any time someone highlights something, that they’re going to raise its prominence, which can have a reinforcing effect,” he said. “But people release new music all the time, and there’s so much already there to be discovered too. It can be good, as a listener, to remember how much is out there.” 

Ruge can be reached at [email protected]