The growth of all things streaming has become one of, if not the most discussed topic in the music industry. Everything connected to the vertical seems to be increasing at a rapid pace, from user numbers to play counts to monetary payouts. One field that has become increasingly popular and surprisingly important is that of playlists, which are now the go-to way for many listeners to lose themselves to the music.
A new report recently released by the Music Business Association claims that playlists have now become the second most popular format for listening to music when it comes to streaming. The report states that playlists accounted for 31% of all listening for those that participated in the study. That figure is up from previous years, and it puts playlists ahead of albums in terms of how people consume music on streaming platforms. Full albums are now only responsible for 22% of listening time, which is down from the year prior. Single-song plays still rule, as that format claims 46% of listening time, which should go to show that the single truly isn’t dead, at least not when it comes to streaming.
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The overtaking of albums streaming by playlists has been a long time coming, and is honestly not that surprising, especially to anybody who has been watching the streaming music space. When streaming music sites first began emerging as serious platforms for accessing music, the excitement was based around being able to search for and play any album or song that people had loved their entire lives. Now that some time has passed, the real excitement has turned to discovering new favorites, which playlists are perfect for. As the laid back users finally find their way to sites like Spotify, Apple Music and the bevy of other competitors, many of them don't want to spend time listening to entire albums, instead opting to choose a pre-made selection and let the music play. These curated rankings allow non-aficionados to consume and even discover music without having to think about it too much, which is how millions of people around the world prefer things.
The playlist has been growing in popularity rapidly, and perfecting them has become both an art and a competition between the biggest players in the industry. Spotify helped usher in the age of the streaming platform playlist with both carefully-curated lists that vary by genre and mood, as well as ones that are created via algorithm for each and every user around the world. The site’s custom rankings—Discover Weekly and Release Radar—have so far accrued billions of individual streams, and some of Spotify's most popular individual playlists have millions of followers, such as “Today’s Top Hits,” “electroNOW” and “Rap Caviar.”
Apple Music started out relying solely on its well-versed human curators, but has since also jumped into the algorithmic game with two new weekly “mixtapes” for the platform's millions of users. Other streaming outlets have also started relying on excellently-produced and curated playlists to bring people in and keep them happy, as those offerings serve as both radio-style background listening as well as a perfect tool for new music discovery. The future, and the promising present, of streaming music seems to be in playlisting, which as a practice may still be in early days.
