Play It On Repeat: Study Reveals People Find Comfort Listening To Same Songs Over And Over

ANN ARBOR (WWJ) - Go ahead and play it on repeat.

A new study from the University of Michigan says people find comfort listening to the same songs over and over.

Researchers found that people enjoy replaying a favorite song many times even after the novelty and surprise are gone -- the average was more than 300 times and this number was even larger for listeners who had a deep connection to the song.

About 86 percent of the participants reported listening to their favorite song daily or a few times weekly. Forty-three percent of those who listened daily replayed the song at least three times a day. Sixty percent listened to the song multiple times consecutively and about 6 percent indicated they urgently wanted to hear the song before they played it.

Study co-author Jason Corey said certain features of a song were important reasons why people listened many times. The most important features were the song's melody, beat or rhythm and lyrics. For songs that made listeners happy, beat/rhythm was especially important for re-listening.

Researchers say the availability of digital music through streaming services and YouTube makes it easier than ever for people to listen to virtually any song any time. This enables listeners to develop personally meaningful relationships with particular songs, researchers say.

The findings appear in Psychology of Music.