Which university has the most eclectic taste in music? Spotify has the answers

Students in Californian universities listen to music streaming app Spotify the most, while their peers in Midwestern and Southern schools are the most diverse music-wise.

Spotify’s “How Students Listen”, which studies the consumption habits of users subscribed to the music service’s student deal, revealed some interesting trends among US students’ music listening activities.

Californian universities dominated the list of top 10 listeners, with California State University, San Bernardino (CSU) in top spot, followed by Washington State University and California State University, Los Angeles (CSU).

But while CSU listens the most, they’re not exactly listening to a wide range of music, coming up at only the 64th spot in terms of the diversity of their preferred tunes. A closer look at the data shows CSU students particularly favouring Ariana Grande, whose tracks are the top two most listened to in the CSU campus: Almost is Never Enough and Tattooed Heart.

Students at the University Of Minnesota (Twin Cities) on the other hand have the most wide-ranging music playlists, made obvious by the tracks that rank highly on that campus coming from four different musical genres (hip hop, pop, electronic, country) – Rockabye (feat Sean Paul and Anne Marie) by Clean Bandit, I Don’t Care – Maestro, For Her by Chris Lane, Run Thangs by Honey C, Up To You by Chris Brown.

Spotify’s nifty search also shows how a university’s students measure up according to several indicators like Bounciness, Danceability, Duration, Dynamic Range, Energy, Instrumentalness, Loudness, Mechanicalness, Organicness, Positivity, Runnability, Tempo and Thumpiness.

“Bounciness” is described as a measure of the “sonic density” of the music; low bounciness tracks are described as tunes like choral music and atmospheric black metal, while high bounciness means “choppy sounds with highly defined beats, like reggae or hip hop”.

The least “bouncy” university is University of Buffalo while Oregon State University takes the prize for liking the most bouncy music.

Students at University of Buffalo listen the most to tracks like Jesus Paid It All by Kings Kaleidoscope, while Oregon State students are jamming to songs like Epiphany (feat NF) by Futuristic and artists like Chance The Rapper and Andy Shauf.

USA College Today notes Northern Arizona University, University of North Texas and University of Houston are found to have the most hardcore sleep-deprived Spotify listeners on campus as they landed on both the early bird and night owl lists.

Here are the top 10 schools listening to the most and with the most varied tastes:

Top 10 listeners:

1. California State University, San Bernardino (CSU)
2. Washington State University
3. California State University, Los Angeles (CSU)
4. Santa Monica College
5. Pasadena City College
6. University Of Connecticut (UConn)
7. California State University, Northridge (CSU)
8. University Of Nevada (Reno)
9. Georgia Institute Of Technology (Georgia Tech)
10. University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz)

Top listening diversity

1. University Of Minnesota (Twin Cities)
2. University Of Texas (UT Austin)
3. Texas A&M University
4. University Of California, Davis (UC Davis)
5. University Of Illinois (Urbana Champaign)
6. Arizona State University (ASU)
7. University Of Southern California (USC)
8. Northeastern University
9. Ohio State University
10. University Of Wisconsin (Madison)

Liked this? Then you’ll love these…