Audio tech firm Dolby has been asking 2,000 American adults about their music habits. The results back up the widely-held view that social media apps like TikTok are helping young people rediscover catalogue tracks from decades ago. Almost half of respondents said they have recently discovered a song released more than a decade ago, although that rose to 70% for people classed as Gen Z.
“Almost a fourth of people who recently discovered a song released over a decade ago attribute this discovery to a viral video on social media,” noted Dolby. Some encouraging responses, too: more than two thirds of respondents said they spend more time listening to music than before the start of 2020 (i.e. before Covid-19 and its lockdowns) while 55% said they are spending more money on music each month, including streaming subscriptions.
And yes, the survey is partly about supporting Dolby’s work in hi-res and spatial audio: nearly 90% of respondents agreed that enhanced audio quality was a “must-have” feature for a subscription – not so surprising: who would disagree with that if prompted? – but more interestingly 82% of that group said they had specifically upgraded, switched services or decided to subscribe to a streaming service on audio quality grounds.
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