RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC, April 26, 2022 – Coleman Insights revealed surprising initial findings from its fourth annual Contemporary Music SuperStudy, which examined the appetites for contemporary music among 1,000 12- to 54-year-olds across the United States and Canada. The annual benchmark study evaluated the most consumed songs of 2021—via radio airplay, streaming, and sales, as measured by Luminate—to provide the most comprehensive assessment of consumers’ appetites for contemporary music available to audio-based media companies.
Contemporary Music SuperStudy 4 showed that contemporary tastes have not moved forward despite the gradual reopening of society. The frozen nature of consumer tastes in last year’s study reflected the impact of the pandemic—lockdowns, cancellations, and new music releases held back—in 2020, and that trend continued in this year’s results. “Shape Of You” by Ed Sheeran was the number one song for the third straight year, while Adele’s “Easy On Me” was the only song released in 2021 to break into the top ten.
According to Coleman Insights Executive Vice President/Senior Consultant John Boyne, “The lean towards older music is notable, and substantially different from the first two editions of our study. Consumers are not embracing the very newest releases to the extent they were previously.”
Coleman Insights will release more findings over the next few weeks via ColemanInsights.com, in its Tuesdays With Coleman blog and in the Contemporary Music SuperStudy 4 Deep Dive webinar on Wednesday, May 11th at 2PM EDT/11AM PDT. The webinar will cover additional findings including how appetites for different genres of new music have shifted in the past year and how those appetites vary by age, gender, ethnicity, geography, and platform usage. Registration is now open for the webinar here.
