Cranking up the volume on a brand-new album is a welcome escape, but what happens when that escape happens behind the wheel? A worrying new study suggests that on the day a major new album drops, traffic fatalities jump by a jaw-dropping 15 percent. The issue isn’t necessarily the music; it’s the smartphone you’re using to play it.
Researchers uncovered this deadly connection in a working paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, digging into the data surrounding the 10 most-streamed album releases between 2017 and 2022. They found that on these major release days, music streaming surged by 43 percent compared to the days immediately before and after.
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