A Harvard University study has found that traffic fatalities in the United States increase during the days when Spotify releases new albums from well-known artists. In fact, a recent study by the National Bureau of Economic Research reveals that music streaming on Spotify increases by 43 percent during the days when "significant" music albums are released on the platform. At the same time, traffic fatalities on US roads also increase by 15 percent on those same days, the study says, as reported by Techxplore.
The researchers analysed accident stats on the release days of the 10 most streamed albums between 2017 and 2022. And then, for comparison, on the 10 days both before and after the release dates. By using Spotify data, they found "an average of 123.3 million streams on the major album release days, compared with just 86.1 million streams on the days before and after - a 43% increase on release days".
OK, great, but what about those traffic fatalities? Researchers found "an average of 139.1 deaths on release days, an increase of 18.2 fatalities over the average of 120.9 traffic deaths on the 10 days before and after the releases". When data is added together, deaths rose 15.1%, totalling 182 additional fatalities on the 10 days when those major albums were released.
Another note was that the increase in fatal accidents was also larger in single-occupant vehicles, and that drivers also tended to be younger.
Maybe in the future, AI might help with all of this? Artificial intelligence could allow a new array of distracting tasks to be performed while driving. AI could also enhance safety by taking on tasks from the driver, among these finding music or drafting a work email.