Illustration: Carolina News & Reporter
Hey you! Yeah you! What song are you listening to right now? I bet it’s a jam.
Whatever it is, I’m sure it’s good. I’m guessing you streamed music on your phone and computer during quarantine rather than hearing it in your car or inside a store, right? Because of COVID-19, streams and sales of music have skyrocketed. By the end of 2020, Spotify had gained a whopping 6 million new Spotify Premium members, because of an increase in music streams, podcast streams, and even cooking related audios! Since March 2020, YouTube has also reported a similar increase of streams. 40% of people say they watched YouTube significantly more, and 24% watched slightly more. 46% of the rest either watched the same amount or didn’t even watch at all (and I don’t know about you, but most of the YouTube videos I watch are music related.)
More streams equal more money for the artists, so you can rest assured your favorite artist benefited from your earworms. However, COVID didn’t just cause rainbows and butterflies for the music industry. Advertising cost the industry a lot of money, since artists can’t flaunt their stuff everywhere in person now, and artists are struggling to form and release new albums.
Though we are streaming a TON of music, it’s not enough since digital sales have decreased by 11% thanks to things like stores not being able to play music often. Even physical sales (like vinyl and CD) went down by one third!
But enough about the statistics! What about our friends? Here are a couple of words from Northwood students about how music helped them through quarantine.
“Music helped me a lot during quarantine. It helped me to study, workout, and just chill in my room,” said Calil Neme-Filho ‘21. “I discovered of a lot of good music and I am definitely listening more to music now. I have a specific type of music that I listened to in quarantine, electronic music,” added Neme-Filho.
“Yeah, I figured out some new genres I liked, such as 90s Alternative Rock, or artists like Daft Punk, the Foo Fighters, and my new favorite, Pearl Jam,” said junior Matthew Burns. “I also regained some appreciation for genres or artists I lost interest in before, and even found out that Pearl Jam was also one of my dad’s favorites,” he said. Burns turned to music during the quarantine. “I was definitely listening to music more often, even having to go as far as to dig through my parents’ CDs to see if any seemed appealing to me, just to find something I hadn’t listened to 7 times already! I even bought two new CDs, and am considering buying some others,” he said, adding “I know, actually buying new CDs nowadays — mind-blowing“.
What song got Burns through the quarantine? “That’s a tough one. I usually threw on whatever playlist or album I was in the mood for at that time. However, I often found myself enjoying either Even Flow or Alive, both by Pearl Jam, the most. If I’m being honest, the whole album those songs are from (Ten) got me through it a lot,” said Burns.
