Spotify released its second annual Culture Next Trends Report Wednesday, with the aim of providing marketers with key takeaways on Generation Z insights and cross-generational views on key topics.
The streaming service teamed up with research agencies B3 Intelligence, Culture Co-op and Lucid to analyze Gen Z and millennials in the fall and winter of 2019 running into 2020, as well as July and August 2020.
Spotify streaming intelligence data was used to mine first-party data and insights from listeners’ streaming behavior, across moments and devices.
The work was conducted in 11 markets: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Mexico, Spain, the U.K. and the U.S.
Topics that were explored include Black Lives Matter, brand values education, entrepreneurism, parent-child means for connection, societal norms and expectations and voting/politics.
Spotify also created five new Gen Z audience personas to make it easier for advertisers to connect with its listeners based on their distinctive traits and characteristics: family embrace audio at home; Gen Z starting from scratch; progress overtakes partisanship; self-discovery is communal; and sound is getting smarter.
Spotify shared some highlights from its new Culture Next Trends Report:
Progress over partisanship
- In January, 65% of Gen Zs in the U.S. aged 18 through 25 said they planned to vote in the upcoming presidential election, and that number jumped to 72% in August.
- 71% of Gen Z and millennial respondents were less interested in political parties than they were in moving forward.
- When asked what they wanted to see out of brands, 93% of Gen Z and millennials chose “purpose” over “politics.”
Gen Zs globally mean business
- One out of three respondents 17 and under worldwide said they may not go to college, preferring to start a business instead.
- 89% of Gen Zs in the U.S. considered education plans other than four-year degrees immediately following high school.
- 65% of global Gen Zs said they plan to be or already are their own boss.
- In July, over 50% of Gen Z respondents globally said they were more inspired to start a business than they were before the pandemic.
Gen Zs and millennials in the U.S. credit sound as therapeutic and a force for community building
- When Gen Zs and millennials in the U.S. were asked which qualities make sound powerful to them, the top three responses were emotional, therapeutic and personal.
- 72% said voice makes them more sentimental toward their devices, and 58% said sound is at the forefront of humanizing technology.
- 73% said they use audio to cope with stress and anxiety.
- 80% said music streaming services offer a gateway to other cultures.
- In one month last year, over 60% of Spotify users discovered an artist from a country outside of their own.
- 69% of Spotify users believe music is a great way to find community.
Getting to know (and like) mom and dad through music and podcasts
- 77% of U.S. parents said in July that music helps families connect.
- 64% of young people worldwide said listening to their parents’ music gives them a better sense of who their parents are.
- 78% of parents globally said music is a way they bond with their kids.
- 86% of parents globally said technology has fueled their family’s discovery exponentially.
- 72% of parents globally said today’s kids are “light years” ahead of where they were at their age as a result.
