Zagraniczni zorganizowali tydzień jawnego słuchania: od 4 do 10 kwietnia notowali co i w jakich okolicznościach im gra. Wśród stu udziałowców 75 wypełniło ankietę, z której wynika:

• MP3s were by far the most popular format, with 70.7% of people listening to them “mainly”, and 9.3% listening to them “exclusively”. No other format was listened to exclusively (…)

• 30.7% of people didn’t listen to CDs at all; 45.3% listened to CDs occasionally, and 24% listened to them mainly.

• 77.5% didn’t listen to vinyl at all; 18.7% occasionally, and 4% mainly.

• Unsurprisingly, MP3 players via headphones were the most listened-via device, with 56.2% listening via them mainly.

• Computers, whether via headphones, internal speakers, or external speakers, were more popular than hi-fi separates and minisystems.

• 1 person (1.5%) listened exclusively via their car stereo.

• 76% of us were “usually alone” when listening to music; 6.7% were always alone, 17.3% were sometimes alone. No one was “never alone”.

• When we did listen with other people, 42.3% of the time we listened together and had chosen the music. 23.9% of the time we were the only person listening to music as far as we knew.

• A handful of people wrote in physical notebooks (some of whom then photographed those notebooks and stuck the pictures online).

• 60% of people didn’t attend any live music or nightclubs etc during the week. 21.3% went once. Four people (5.4%) went three or more times.

• The vast, vast majority of us were doing other stuff while listening: walking/commuting/travelling was most common (71.6% said often), then writing/working/etc (66.2% said often), and then browsing the internet casually (61.3% said often).

• Only one person exclusively did nothing but listen while they had music on; 61.1% of us managed this “occasionally”, and 25% didn’t manage it at all (plus another three people who didn’t respond to this line of the question).

• 60% of people reported that they generally gave music “most of my attention” while listening. Correlating this with how often we work while listening, and line managers everywhere should perhaps take note… Only 5.3% said they generally give music “all of my attention”.

• 14.7% didn’t notice “incidental” music at all; 65.3% noticed it a little, and 20% noticed it a lot.