The Gender Listening Gap
Introduction
Have you ever wondered if men and women have different tastes when it comes to music? If so, you're not alone. In this blog post, I dig into this intriguing topic to unravel the complexities of gender and music consumption.
Methodology: To tackle this question, I started by selecting the top 15 artists globally based on their Spotify followers. I then analyzed the gender distribution of their YouTube followers using data provided by Soundcharts.
Key Thesis: My findings reveal a significant gender listening gap: both men and women listen to men artists, while women artists are primarily followed by women.
The Overall Gender Listening Gap: A Comparative Analysis
First, let’s look at the overall gender distribution of listeners for men and women artists in our sample of top 15 artists (10 men, 5 women) globally.
To visualize this, I’ll create a bar chart comparing the average percentage of men who listen to men and women artists.
As we can see from the chart above, men artists have a more balanced listener base, with an average of 57% men listeners. In contrast, women artists have a more skewed listener base, with only 40% men listeners on average.
This discrepancy is indicative of the gender listening gap: men artists are consumed more equitably by both genders, while women artists seem to appeal more to women.
Artist-by-Artist Breakdown
To gain a more nuanced understanding, let’s break down the data artist by artist.
Next, I’ll create bar charts to show the gender distribution of listeners for each artist in our sample. Note that the artists are listed here in descending order of global popularity.
The artist-by-artist breakdown reveals some interesting patterns:
Men artists like Arijit Singh have a high percentage of male listeners, as high as 82%.
Women artists like Ariana Grande and Taylor Swift have a lower percentage of men listeners, 35% and 36%, respectively.
Conclusion
The data paints a clear picture: there’s a gender listening gap in music consumption. While both men and women listen to men artists, women’s music is predominantly consumed by women. This phenomenon is not just a curiosity but has two critical implications:
Algorithmic Bias: In today’s world, music is overwhelmingly consumed on digital streaming platforms that operate on recommendation engines. To the extent that men’s music has wider appeal due to listener bias—specifically men’s bias against women’s music—these algorithms are likely to promote men’s music more. This could create further divergences in music consumption patterns, reinforcing existing biases.
Career Opportunities: Data and metrics are key to an artist’s success today, from booking shows to featuring music in ads or movies. Men’s music may display better metrics than women’s music, not because of the quality but because of listener bias. This disparity could hamper women artists’ opportunities for career success and broader recognition.
The gender listening gap deserves further investigation to fully understand its underlying causes. It also calls for more balanced consumption and representation in the music industry.
