Music Research: Indie Music Fans Most Open Minded About Other Music Genres

New research out of McMaster University’s Digital Music Lab, spearheaded by professor Matthew Woolhouse, has examined data from more than a billion song downloads since the lab opened in 2013.

The research delves deep into how people consume music. One project that measures “exclusivity” or how likely a fan of a certain type of music is to also have other genres of music in his or her library was conducted.

Results show that indie music fans are the most open-minded listeners to other genres of music, while pop listeners are the least open minded to listening to other music genres.

Here’s a list of genres, ranked from the most open to least open minded according to the research study.

1. Indie

2. Jazz

3. Folk

4. Country

5. Classical

6. Rock

7. Metal

8. Rap

9. Dance

10. Pop

What does this say about music subultures and the people who listen to them? There is no easy answer to what features in musical style make it more attractive to people who are exclusive yet, but hopefully there will be more insight on this soon that you can leverage to better target your fanbase.

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