We studied tens of thousands of Americans’ Spotify playlists and found people are using music playlists in surprising ways. Our findings reveal a truth about people’s emotional lives that companies are deeply out of step with. The rules of business are about to change to resemble a culture shaped by music.
This report is the result of a year-long effort to study America’s broken relationship with the news and how to fix it. We’re proposing a solution: “The Fair Play Test”—a simple test that would help inoculate Americans against narrative warfare and encourage critical thinking and discussion. We hope it serves as a set of shared standards to hold old media, new media, friends on Facebook, our favorite podcast hosts, and ourselves more accountable in how we exchange ideas.
This extremely emotional study shows how many Americans are starving for deeper connections with others, the unexpected behaviors Americans are hiding because of it, and the recipe some Americans are using to successfully find intimacy. This report has a trigger warning for a reason.
