A study shows that music streaming sharply increases, by nearly 40 percent, on dates of major music album releases, while U.S. traffic fatalities increase by nearly 15 percent on album release days.
Mobile device use while driving is a known safety issue, but smartphone use to listen to music means more opportunities for driver distraction.
Each year, more than 1 million people around the world are killed on roads, and traffic fatalities are the leading cause of death globally among children and young adults.
The cost of these deaths to the world’s economy is estimated to be 1 trillion dollars from 2015-2030.
In the United States, motor vehicle collisions are the leading cause of death, with about one death occurring every 13 minutes in 2021.
While many developed nations have experienced reductions in traffic collisions and fatalities over the past decade, the U.S. is one of the few where they’ve increased despite advances in automobile safety technology.
Distraction plays an important role in traffic collisions. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported that in 2022, 8 percent of fatal crashes and 11 percent of all police-reported crashes were classified as “distraction-affected.”
Studies also show a strong link between driving distractions and unsafe driving and collisions.
A popular of use of smartphones is to stream music, with services such as Spotify and Apple Music offering consumers the ability to listen to almost any song at any time.
Using Spotify data, researchers associated with Harvard University identified the 10 albums with the highest number of streams in a single day between 2017 and 2022. Taylor Swift and Drake each appear three times in the top 10.
The researchers looked at the number of nationwide traffic fatalities on album release days and on each of the 10 days before and after each album release day.
They found the increase in traffic fatalities on album release days was larger among younger drivers, male drivers, and White and Asian drivers. The study also found an increase in traffic fatalities among single-occupant vehicles.
In addition, the researchers found that traffic fatalities associated with surges in online streaming were larger during clear driving conditions.
The researchers call for further actions by smartphone and vehicle manufacturers, software developers, and policymakers to improve driver safety related to streaming media to reduce traffic fatalities.
