TODAY we’re revealing the world’s new audio consumption habits that are emerging during the COVID-19 pandemic. While on-the-move listening is obviously affecting streams, we’re seeing a positive shift towards home devices and mood listening. We’ve looked at the streams of music across the region between March 2-29, 2020 and here’s what we discovered:

We’re adapting to life indoors

The lack of daily commute and on-the-move listening is changing when we listen. Instead of the usual average of 8/9a.m. weekday peak, the region has shifted to 11a.m./12p.m. On the weekend, people are streaming constantly in the afternoon — something we’ve never seen before. And although Thursdays previously had the highest stream volume of the week, this changed after social activities stopped. Now, for the first time, every day looks the same.

Return of the streams

Following the lockdown announcements, we saw an initial decrease. However, around a week later, engagement levels have started to increase again. We’ve seen from our data that people need around ten days to adapt to their new solitary life. Our data in the KSA, for example, showed that although engagement levels dropped initially, it levelled out after the first week of lockdown. Elsewhere, countries like UAE are following a similar pattern.

Adjusting to this new way of living has also meant a bigger demand for content driven by our mood. In the week following the launch of our ‘Stay at Home’ channel, playlists like ‘Chill at Home’ increased by 40%. ‘Happy Hits’ also saw a lift of 200% in the region.

We also saw a major increase in functional playlists. As many of us are working from home, plays of Deezer’s ‘Work From Home’ playlist rose by 400% in the days following the launch of our ‘Stay at Home’ channel.*

Although we’re homebound, fitness and exercise remain a priority for us, with ‘Home Workout’ being the top streamed playlist in the channel in the region.

Switching devices

When we’re at home, we’re streaming less on our mobile phones. Instead we’re turning to home devices to play our tunes. Smart TVs saw the biggest boost, with music streams on home speakers, tablets and PCs all increasing. Looking at weekly regional data from week commencing March 2nd. Here’s the breakdown:

Regional music stream increase and device: +66% Android TV; +18% Tablet and +15% Desktop.

“Home isolation means that people have to adapt to a totally new life. You have to keep your kids entertained, make sure to stay fit and still balance work and personal time. Our data shows us how people are adapting. Home devices are taking up the job of streaming audio. Peak streaming now happens one to two hours later than our normal morning time. And the difference between weekends and weekdays is more or less gone - every day looks like Friday now,” said our MENAT CEO Tarek Mounir.

“The channel we’ve created to help people stay at home contains everything you need, from working from home to keeping the kids happy to meditation. And listeners have been embracing streaming as part of their wellbeing routine. Our editors are working non-stop to make sure that listeners always find fresh and relevant content on Deezer, no matter what day of the week it is,” he added.

Three short-term future trends during the COVID-19 lockdown:

• We’re relying less on our mobiles and more on home devices. This will probably continue to increase, especially in Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

• After an initial decline in the ‘shock’ stage, streams are expected to start increasing again. It will probably be some time before we are back to pre-crisis levels though.

• Contextual playlists will continue to boom as they assist with our daily indoor life.

Key global trends:

Globally, we’re also seeing a behavioral shift in podcast listening. Despite overall global podcast listening dipping, topics like kids, sports and meditation are booming after the launch of our ‘Stay at Home’ channel.

A week after launch, the daily active users of kids podcast content grew by 218% as parents balance work from home and entertaining their kids. Sport coaching grew by 194% and meditation increased by 132%.

We believe that contextual podcasts will continue to boom as they assist with our daily indoor life. Subjects like cooking, culture and fitness are set to become even more relevant

In addition, live radio listening overall boomed globally by 19% in the last two weeks. In the last week, it increased globally by 2% again. — SG

* The Work From Home playlist saw a 391% increase from March 13th - March 16th 2020