Demographics of pop music and genre

Demographics:

Many streaming services (e.g. Spotify) have a short enrollment process which allows them to obtain some information about the consumer so that the type of music they supply is relevant to that individual. 

This therefore suggests that age and gender can determine what type of music an individual prefers. 

Gender differences
A study done by Paul Lamere (2014) collected data from 200 thousand randomly selected consumers that have self-identified as either male or female. He tallied up the number of male and female listeners for each artist and then ranked the artists in order of listeners.

Artists that appear as red do not rank on the opposite gender's top 40

Lamere's results show that there are gender differences between genre and music preference. This means that a music providing company can cater to a consumer if the gender is not provided.
Therefore, we can determine which gender is more likely listen to a specific genre by looking at the artists they listen to.
For example:

Female-skewed artists include:

• One Direction
• Justin Bieber
• Demi Lovato
• Nicki Minaj
• Shakira

Male-skewed artists include:

• Avicci
• Kendrick Lamar
• Bob Marley
• Kanye West
• Queen

By looking at the genres of these gender-skewed artists we can identify which genres are also skewed by gender.

Genres most skewed my females:

• pop
• dance pop
• contemporary hit radio

Genres most skewed by males:

• rock
• hip hop
• house

Age differences
Another study done by Skynet and Ebert (2016) researched into how age impacts whether they listen to popular music or not. 

They took individual listening data from Spotify users in the U.S. (to control for cultural differences) and combines it with Echo nest artist popularity datato generate statistics for the average popularity of the artists that were streamed in 2014.

To collect the data Skynet and Ebert looked at how many times a listener streamed an artist and they then coupled this up with the artist popularity rank from Echo Nest. 

To give an idea of the ranks, As of January of 2015, the artist popularity rank scales were: 

• Taylor Swift was ranked no.1
• Eminem was ranked no.50 
• Muse was ranked no.250
• Norah Jones was ranked no.1000

Mainstream artists exist at the centre of the circle and as each circle moves away the middle it indicates the decreasing popularity of the artist being listened to.

As the graph shows, the average U.S. teen is very close to the centre of the chart and therefore listens to more mainstream artists. 

As users age out of their teens and into their 20's, their path takes them out of the center of the popularity circle. Until their early 30's, mainstream music represents a smaller and smaller proportion of their streaming.

For the average listener, by their mid-30s, their tastes have matured.

Two factors drive this transition away from popular music. First, consumers discover less-familiar music genres that they didn’t hear on the radio as early teens, from artists with a lower popularity rank. Second, listeners are returning to the music that was popular when they were growing up but which has since phased out of popularity.

However, this also has gender differences.

For every age bracket, women are more likely to be streaming popular artists than men are. (These days, the top of the charts skew toward artists popular with women, including female solo vocalists.)

However, the decline in popular music streaming is much steeper for men than for women. Women show a slow and steady decline in listening from 13 to 49, while men drop more rapidly, starting from their teens until their early 30's, at which point they encounter the “lock-in” effect. This means that they have found the music they prefer to listen to and they tend not to stray to far from this.



Social class

Cultural differences
Different cultures may listen to different genres of music as it is a form of communication that can represent someone's values (e.g. Rock music can connote to youth rebellion.)

There are many contributing factors at which the music divisions come from. These include: influential parents, education, peer interaction/friendship groups and expression of the individual's identity.
Within our society, which has strong cultural divisions, music can be used for reconciliation. However, as music is not a universal language, as it is open for interpretation, it only allows us to see and perhaps understand somebody's values and beliefs.