Return of Cinemas Sees Huge Increase in Listens to Film Soundtracks

As cinemas have begun to reopen locally and around the world, Spotify has seen listeners being inspired by the silver screen, reliving top movie soundtracks for both upcoming blockbusters and cinematic classics.

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Tipped to be one of the biggest films of 2020, Christopher Nolan’s time bending thriller Tenet was released in South Africa on August 28. Whilst its soundtrack from Swedish composer Ludwig Göransson is as yet unreleased, Göransson’s other works have seen an uplift in streams.

Tenet is the first Christopher Nolan film for almost two decades not scored by legendary composer Hans Zimmer, but this hasn’t deterred fans of the legendary composer. Leading up to the release of Tenet, Zimmer’s previous works have all seen an increase in daily listens in August compared to July. His soundtracks for Rocky sequels Creed and Creed II enjoyed an up lift in streams and so did Inception.

Disney’s big release will be the previously postponed live action Mulan, starring Yifei Liu and Jet Li. Classic Disney songs that have seen the highest increase in streams are Frozen’s Let It Go by Idina Menzel at number one, followed by How Far I’ll Go sung by Auli’i Cravalho for Moana and Donnie Osmond’s classic I’ll Make A Man Out Of You – sung for 1998’s animated Mulan – taking the third spot as the song with third highest increase in streams.

There has also been a substantial increase in streams for the overall movie playlists. The playlist with the highest increase in average daily listens was The Mandalorian with an increase of over 9000% increase. The playlist with the second highest increase in average daily listens was Spotify’s Disney Hits at just over 3349% and third was Feel Good Soundtracks with an increase of a little over 3200%. The playlists Soundtracked and Iconic Soundtracks completed the top five list with an increase in average daily listens of over 1900% and 1000%, respectively.

With movie fans around the world excited to get back to the big screen, famous composers throughout history saw overall lifts in listens on Spotify, including John Williams, Danny Elfman and Howard Shore. Legendary composer Ennio Morricone, who sadly passed away in early July, and beloved for his classic Western scores and recent Tarantino film soundtracks, also had an increase in listeners to his soundtracks.

The top 5 most streamed soundtracks globally on Spotify are:

  1. Hans Zimmer – Inception
  2. Various Artists – The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
  3. Jeremy Soule – The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim: Original Game Soundtrack
  4. Ramin Djawadi – Game of Thrones (Music from the HBO® Series – Season 6)
  5. Two Steps from Hell – Invincible

Ahead of the release of Mulan, Spotify has looked at the top streamed Disney hits:

  1. Frozen – “Let It Go” by Idina Menzel
  2. Moana – “How Far I’ll Go” by Auli’i Cravalho
  3. Moana – “You’re Welcome” by Dwayne Johnson
  4. Cars – “Life Is A Highway” by Rascal Flatts
  5. Aladdin – “A Whole New World (End Title)” by ZAYN, Zhavia Ward

While the top 5 most streamed composers of all time are:

  1. Hans Zimmer
  2. John Williams
  3. Ramin Djawadi
  4. Max Richter
  5. Howard Shore

The playlist Iconic Soundtracks is available to stream on Spotify now.

Image Courtesy: dasym.com

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