Turn Up The Classical!

Classical music is making a major comeback, and we’re so excited. Streaming is bringing sexy Bach! (Sorry we had to…)  

Thanks to streaming platforms, classical listening is more accessible than ever. Musical eras (or centuries in this case) have been removed and people across the globe are flocking to ‘Classical Essentials’ and ‘Chilled Classical’ to serve all of their Mozart needs.

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Physical sales and streaming consumption are both up, with one quarter of classical listening now being driven from streaming. This increase in classical is especially apparent in the UK, with growth of 10% in 2018 from the previous year. This also meant that classical as a genre actually grew more than the music industry as a whole last year, which only increased at a rate of 5.7%. You can read more about these stats in the BPI study here.

It’s not just our parents getting onto Spotify that are boosting the numbers either, young people are flocking to Vivaldi and Beethoven too. A study done by UniDays found that students are actually listening to classical more than dubstep and trance. Who knew!

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There are still some hurdles that the classical community need to address if they want to sustain this growth though. One major issue being how much more complex the metadata for classical is. Searching for the name of the work isn’t enough because you may want to narrow down to a particular conductor, soloist or arrangement. Also since pieces are usually written as a larger body of work, not as singles, each part of the piece needs to organised in its proper context, Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 in E-Flat Major, Op.55 “Eroica” for example. We’re optimistic that these kinks will be worked out in time though, especially with specialised streaming platforms like Primephonic.

Streaming is giving new life to back catalogue that hasn’t been so well served in physical formats over the past decade due to limited shelf space and fierce competition. Fun fact: Ludovico Einaudi accounts for 1 in 12 classical streams on Spotify.

Time to start putting together that ‘Summer of 1769’ playlist!

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