Tag: stats

How Gen Z Powers Up for Back-to-School Season on Spotify

As summer winds down and backpacks come out, Gen Z isn’t just heading back to class, they’re shaping the soundtrack for a whole new season.

For Back to School 2025, Spotify has compiled a snapshot of the daily rituals and shared listening moments that define this reset. Powered by new listening data and anchored in past trends, it reveals how Gen Z students and their families use Spotify as a daily companion to reconnect and refocus—and how brands can be part of the moment in meaningful ways.

Mornings are the new prime time

As routines shift, mornings become high-attention listening windows. Between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m., Gen Z students on Spotify power up with music and podcasts that turn commutes and pre-class moments into part of their soundtrack. For brands, these ritual-driven spikes offer valuable opportunities to tap in with multiformat campaigns that blend sight and sound.

Study sessions and shared playlists

Back-to-school season isn’t just a retail moment, it’s also a cultural and community reset. Gen Z leans on study playlists and collaborative features like Jam to concentrate and connect with friends.

India’s Classical Music Takes Center Stage in Spotify’s Echo Campaign

In India, music fans are diving into classical music. Recent data shows that over the last two years, India’s classical music consumption grew by nearly 500% on Spotify. And while users of all ages are tuning into these songs, more than 45% of listeners are under the age of 25. Classical music, it turns out, is indeed for everyone.

Indian musical instruments have a rich cultural heritage and are consumed widely not just in the country, but across the world. Generations of artists have taken this music to listeners across the globe, with instruments such as the sitar, flute, tabla, and more, recognized and beloved everywhere. So, to celebrate and highlight this legacy, we launched Echo, an initiative that puts the spotlight on Indian classical music and musicians. Over the past three months, we’ve focused on the flute, tabla, and sitar, educating our listeners via playlists that celebrate artists who have mastered each instrument, including sitarist Rishab Rikhiram Sharma with the Soulful Sitar playlist, flutist Naveen Kumar with the Fascinating Flute playlist, and multi-percussionist Anuradha Pal with the Tabla Rhythms playlist.