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Caught an earworm? Music downloads spread a lot like infectious diseases

Embargoed until: Publicly released:
Peer-reviewed: This work was reviewed and scrutinised by relevant independent experts.

Simulation/modelling: This type of study uses a computer simulation or mathematical model to predict an outcome. The original values put into the model may have come from real-world measurements (eg: past spread of a disease used to model its future spread).

Canadian scientists were intrigued by the way songs available to download online spread between people, and wondered whether it parallels the way diseases spread, so they used a computer model of how disease spreads and applied it to song downloads from a streaming site in the UK between 2007 and 2014. They found the model describes song download trends just as well as it describes infectious disease trends, especially for the genre 'Electronica', possibly because electronica fans are a smaller community who are more connected than fans of other genres. The results suggest that the social processes driving song popularity may be similar to those that cause diseases to spread, the scientists conclude. 

Journal/conference: Proceedings of the Royal Society A

Link to research (DOI): 10.1098/rspa.2021.0457

Organisation/s: McMaster University, Canada

Funder: D.P.R. was supported by an NSERC Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship and an Ontario Graduate Scholarship (OGS). D.J.D.E. and B.M.B. were supported by NSERC. M.H.W. was supported by SSHRC.

Media release

From: The Royal Society

Modelling song popularity as a contagious process

Popular songs are often described as ‘contagious’, ‘infectious’ or ‘viral’ — but what if these terms are more accurate than we think? What if songs actually do spread through populations the same way that diseases do? In this study, our goal was to understand the social mechanisms that drive song popularity using a mathematical model of infectious disease spread. We find that this model describes song download trends just as well as it describes infectious disease trends. This implies that the social processes driving song popularity could be similar to those that cause diseases to spread.

Sick tunes - Can you infect friends with your music taste? This study used a model of disease spread to analyse song downloads from a streaming site in Britain between 2007 and 2014 and found the model describes song downloads and infectious disease trends just as well - especially in the fast-spreading genre of Electronica. This may be because Electronica fans are more connected than listeners to more common genres with larger and broader communities, the authors suggest.

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