Spotify figures revealed that Beatles songs have been streamed nearly 1.7 billion times during 2019 and that 30 percent of listeners were in the 18-24 age group.

The British icons were streamed by nearly 10 percent of Spotify’s total monthly users during the same time period, with more than 20 million people listening to their music each month.

“By bridging the gap between several generations, the Beatles have done what many music experts believed was impossible,” Digital Music News commented. “A plethora of other all-time-great artists have seen their success and reach limited to their initial audience – that is, the main demographic of fans that listened to the band’s music during their heyday.”

The report added that the has band found a “new – and highly lucrative – audience." “While it’s true that Spotify’s tech-savvy users are generally young, it seems likely that other Beatles fans will continue to support the band through digital and physical purchases," reads the report. "In this way, the Beatles’ body of work will be appreciated, albeit in different ways, by old and new listeners alike.”

Last year the Monmouth University Polling Institute published figures that suggested the Beatles were the most popular rock band of all time, with the Rolling Stones, AC/DC, Led ZeppelinEagles, Aerosmith and Queen some distance behind. University dean and Beatles scholar Ken Womack argued that "their longevity underscores just how special they are. … As John Lennon pointed out during the 1970s, the records are their most important artifacts. It is the high quality of the recordings — in particular, the songwriting and musicianship that went into them — that accounts for their staying power.”

He added that, while many music fans might favor a band over the Beatles, they would “still acknowledge the Beatles as a cut above in terms of their impact on the trajectory of rock music.”

 

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