Are Music fans ditching Spotify for Vinyl?

As the year draws to a close, we wanted to recap the best-selling vinyls of 2023 and see just how popular they are on Spotify, and which ones hold the listeners attention. Our research has found that Spotify users are ‘quiet quitting’ streaming services to enjoy albums from start to finish on vinyl instead. 

The global vinyl record market has seen increasing demand with sales rising by 15% in the first 9 months of this year, and US vinyl sales up 22% in the first half of the year.

Examining Spotify streaming data from the best-selling vinyls and highest-streamed albums of 2023, we found that less than 23% of people get even halfway through an album before listening to something else. Despite pop being the most skipped genre on Spotify with an average of 80% of listeners not making it to the end of the album, what we are calling the ‘drop-off rate’. However, pop music still dominates the 2023 vinyl chart, with 90% of the top 10 best-selling vinyl albums now belonging to the genre.

Analysing Spotify data, the study compares albums to their corresponding first and last song streams, revealing Kylie Minogue’s Tension as having the highest drop-off rate at 99%, with only 1% of fans listening to the full album. Looking at the top 10, SZA’s ‘SOS’ comes second at a drop-off rate of 89%, and Lewis Capaldi's 'Broken By Desire’ ranks third at 88%. 

Taylor Swift is topping the ‘most skipped’ artist charts, featuring twice in the ranking with ‘Midnights‘ coming 6th at 54% and ‘Speak Now’ with a 49% drop-off rate, despite Spotify announcing her as the most streamed artist in 2023. Taylor’s ‘Speak Now’ album has also been named the second highest-selling vinyl album this year. 

Peter Fealey, Founder of A2D2 says: “Spotify and other streaming services are turning listeners into music skimmers with fans now opting for a more immersive listening experience. While vinyl albums encourage listeners to engage with the music as a whole, streaming platforms often lead to a fragmented listening experience, with listeners skipping through songs or switching to different artists altogether. Albums are cohesive pieces of work and are meant to be listened to from start to finish. By listening to albums on vinyl, music fans are forced to slow down and appreciate the music in its entirety.”

Looking at the increase of listens throughout music genres, hip-hop artists appear to have the most loyal fanbase, with Gorrilaz's Cracker Island’ having a whopping 91% spike in streams from the start to the end of the album, and an 86% increase for Bad Bunny’s ‘Un Verano Sin Ti’.

Revealed: The most popular albums of 2023 with the highest drop-off rates on Spotify - and Taylor Swift ranks twice in top 10!

Sources:

• Data collected on Wednesday 6th December 2023 from Spotify
• Vinyl sales data from Rolling Stone 
• Vinyl Sales Report from The Guardian

Methodology 

• For each album, the drop-off rate was calculated by subtracting the number of listeners still listening at the end of the album from the number of plays for the first song and then dividing by the number of plays for the first song. The result was then multiplied by 100 to express the drop-off rate as a percentage.
• Listens data was calculated using an average of drop-off rates above 50% and calculating the percentage difference