What We Learned From Spotify’s Most Musical Universities Study

Rob Slater on September 17, 2014

Last night, Spotify quietly dropped this study of the Top 40 Most Musical Universities in America based off the analytics from (you guessed it) their streaming service. As most may expect, the state of the young music listener is full of Kanye West’s, Drake’s and something called an Iggy Azalea, but there were some useful tidbits to be found if you dug deep enough.

The study broke it down in several ways, identifying the distinct musical characteristics of each university including songs, artists and genres and comparing that to the overall numbers pulled from all 40 schools. They also weighed the time with which most streaming occurred, making it easier to decipher which campus was the most active (if you’re pumping Spotify at 6 AM, you’re probably at the gym), what the average sleep time was for each and so on.

You can dig into it more if you’d like, but here are a few takeaways from the otherwise very interesting study.

Moon Taxi’s relentless touring in the South has paid off

Auburn and University of Alabama both ranked as “top schools” for the Nashville rockers. University of Georgia and Virginia also listed the band as “distinctive artists,” meaning that those schools listen to Moon Taxi more than most others but weren’t a “top school,” where the band would be more popular. Either way, it appears as if Moon Taxi’s conquest of the South is nearly complete.

That Rage Against the Machine set at Hangout Festival this year probably didn’t hurt, either.

The State of the Jamband Listener

Speaking of the South, the top five schools for jamband listeners include University of Georgia, Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Alabama, University of Virginia and (strangely enough) Miami University (the fake Miami, not The U). Among those at the bottom of the barrel for jambands were Cornell, University of Texas, University of Arizona, University of North Texas and University of Central Florida.

While the South is holding it down, the jamband influence seems to be dying on Spotify. All schools’ cumulative jamband listening stats didn’t even reach 0.5% which, for those of you scoring at home, isn’t good. Either way, let’s revisit this “Tweezer Reprise” from Phish’s Charleston, SC show that undoubtedly shook the entire state.

Of course, Colorado

University of Colorado’s top artist? Slightly Stoopid. OF COURSE IT IS.

The Big Ten has a “Let it Go” and “Stairway to Heaven” problem

Ah, the Big Ten. Home of three yards and a cloud of dust, The Big House, the Little Brown Jug, Paul Bunyan’s Axe and a lot of Frozen fans, apparently. Well, at least in Minnesota. The oddest finding of this study came with the fact that University of Minnesota tops the charts when it comes to plays of “Let It Go.” Let’s chalk it up to seasonal listening around the Frozen Four (Minnesota is a five-time champion in such a tournament) or maybe there are just a lot of students who wanted Pearl Jam to cover the whole version.

A couple of states away, the people at University of Illinois own the most streams of Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven.” Probably unrelated, but the Illini Marching Band once played the song at the Rose Bowl. Meanwhile, Florida State celebrates the band’s whole catalog.