Study: Metal Fans are the Most Loyal of All Music Fans
Which music fans are the most loyal? If you’re reading this I probably don’t have to tell you, but: it’s metalheads! Huzzah!
Spotify conducted a study, published on their Insights blog, that attempts to make some determination about loyalty based on the listenership numbers on the streaming service for certain genres. Loyalty, in this particular study, was calculated by first determining certain “core artists” in each genre, then dividing the number of streams each core artist had by their number of listeners. In essence, the study is asking: in which genre do listeners go back to their favorite artists the most? Here are the results for the entire world:
This study, it should go without saying — but I’m gonna say it anyway — is by no means rigorously scientific. For one, I’d love to know who the “core artists” for metal are, and how they were chosen. Additionally, the idea of “loyalty” as defined by how often fans return to those core artists is somewhat dubious — can I not be considered loyal if I listen to fringe artists in the genre religiously, or if I spread out my love across all sorts of bands within the genre?
Still, it’s a neat study. I’m not quite certain what the conclusion here should be, but it certainly says something that metalheads, on the whole, are incredibly devoted to their genre’s torch-bearers… I’m just not sure what.
Spotify’s study goes on to break down loyalty within individual countries. Here’s a shocker: Norwegian Hip Hop fans are the most loyal listeners in Norway! Followed by Norwegian Jazz, then by Norwegian Metal… and by general Metal all the way down at eighth on the list.
