Get ready to file this one under not shocking: almost 50 per cent of B.C. residents didn’t buy an album last year and there’s a whole lot of Hatorade being passed around for Justin Bieber.
Those are just two of the takeaways from an Insights West poll released Thursday that examines the music habits of B.C. residents.
Biebs was the lone musician on the list to register what’s referred to as a “negative momentum score,” which averages out the amount of people who say they like an artist versus those who don’t.
About a third of British Columbians (34 per cent) say they like Bieber, but more than half (58 per cent) say they dislike him, earning him a momentum score of -24.
Other artists in the crosshairs of B.C. listeners include Celine Dione, disliked by 28 per cent, Nickelback (27 per cent) and Avril Lavigne (25 per cent).
On the flipside, Bryan Adams notched the highest momentum score (+72), followed by Sarah McLachlan (+65), and the Barenaked Ladies, at +62.
Michael Bublé and Shania Twain rounded out the top five, with momentum scores of +62 and +61, respectively.
B.C. artists scored reasonably well: Nelly Furtado (+48), Chilliwack (+46) and Matthew Good (+37).
The online survey asked participants whether they liked or disliked 85 different singers, groups and bands.
Results were based on two online studies, one conducted from Aug. 10 to 13, 2016, among a representative sample of 824 adults in British Columbia, and another conducted from Aug. 19 to 23, 2016, among a representative sample of 827 adults in British Columbia.
As for how music is consumed, it seems the millennials, those aged 18 to 34, want to have their cake and to eat it too: 72 per cent use streaming services, most of which are notorious for not properly compensating musicians.
That same demographic leans heavily on the online world, with 83 per cent having watched music videos on YouTube or a similar website.
“Younger British Columbians have developed a taste for on-demand music that is not present in their older counterparts,” said Mario Canseco, Insight West’s vice president of public affairs, in a news release. “Millennials have definitely embraced streaming services and are also relying on YouTube as a personal video jukebox.”
Other highlights from the survey include:
* 66 per cent of those aged 55 and over have never tried a music streaming service.
* 29 per cent have downloaded a song from the Internet over the past month, including 38 per cent of those aged 35-54.
* 48 per cent say they have not bought an entire music album (either online or at a store) in the past year.
* 29 per cent own vinyl.
* 26 per cent still own cassettes (!).
* 78 per cent have CDs at home that have not been transferred onto a computer or MP3 player.
