*1.3. Current Studies on Musical Behavior during the COVID-19 Pandemic*

As shown, musical behavior is closely tied to habits and routines in everyday life. Fitting to this, a growing body of research in the past few months has given rise to the idea that music listening and making have changed together with changing habits and routines and adapted to the new way of living during the pandemic.

On the one hand, current studies have shown that music streaming volume decreased in several countries after the start of the lockdown [29], or more generally, by 12.5% after the WHO's pandemic declaration [30]. The decline in music consumption was related to an increasing number of COVID-19 cases; in countries which recovered quickly, the consumption of music grew again [30].

On the other hand, Fink et al. (2021) [31] queried representative samples from six countries about musical behavior during the first lockdown (April–May 2020) and found that particularly the functions of music play an important role in socio-emotional coping during the lockdown as well as music selection behavior toward the so-called "coronamusic." The most important functions of music listening during the lockdown were, after "interest in others' coronamusic behavior," "makes feel like having company," and "reduces loneliness." Some leisure activities ranked higher than music listening (which was ranked 6th), such as calling people, reading/watching news and movies/series, cleaning and cooking. Between 34% and 57% of the participants report about adapted musical behavior during the lockdown.

Mas-Herrero et al. (2020) [32] queried people from mainly three (Western) countries and found that music listening was the major coping strategy for regulating distress during the pandemic, and depression symptoms (The Depression Anxiety Stress Scale; DASS-21) decreased with the amount of music listening.

In another extensive study from eleven countries during the lockdown [33], music was found to be very efficient at attaining the goals (or functions) of enjoyment and maintaining a good mood, reducing loneliness, and creating a sense of togetherness (only socializing was higher, hobbies were equally good), releasing and venting negative emotions, connecting with oneself and detaching from the surroundings, and diversion from the crisis (note that entertainment media were equally efficient). Here, people scoring higher in the DASS-21 chose music more often, which was associated with nostalgia.

Investigating Spanish citizens in their musical behavior during the lockdown [34], another study observed a perceived increase in time spent on musical activities (making and listening) and how music was perceived to help coping for confinement: that is, to relax, escape, raise their mood, or keep them company. While these findings were based on descriptive statistics, inferential statistics were used to show that the employment situation had an impact on the perception of value of music, which was lowest for the retirees as compared to the other groups.

In light of the methods applied in the present study, it is of interest to note the methodological strategies used in these studies to investigate changes in musical behavior from before to during the lockdown. All four studies assessed changes by indirectly asking for perceived changes, e.g., "Since corona crisis measures were introduced, do you now listen to more or less music?" [31] or "How much time did you spend on listening to music during lockdown as compared to the time before the crisis? (much less–much more)" [33,34]. While Mas-Herrero et al. (2020) [32] used the same approach for the majority of the questions, one difference was seen with regard to a question on listening time, which was asked twice: once regarding before and once during the lockdown (note, comparisons were not made between these two points of measurement but only within).

Therefore, the changes between before and during the lockdown have been investigated rather indirectly with one question asking about perceived changes. Since a comparison between both time points is not possible (unless data were collected right before the lockdown), the only other possibility is to query the behavior from before the lockdown retrospectively and then compare the ratings to the same questions asked about the situation

during the lockdown. This would allow for the comparison of the same questionnaires assessed for two different time points.

#### *1.4. The Present Study*

With the current study, we take an exploratory approach to examine music-listening behavior during the COVID-19 lockdown in Germany via an online survey. The primary goal was to compare the self-reported music listening behavior before and during the lockdown. Therefore, the active engagement with music (Goldsmiths Musical Sophistication Index, Gold-MSI; [35]), functions of music [10], and attributes of music [36] were assessed, once retrospectively before the pandemic and once during the lockdown.

First, changes in functions of music and in active engagement with music were to be expected due to changes in habits and routines during the lockdown. With the choice in assessments, a form of active engagement was investigated that goes beyond just time spent on music listening but includes aspects on seeking music-related information. The functions investigated in the present study covered a wide range including killing time and overcoming loneliness, mind wandering and emotional involvement, motor synchronization and enhanced well-being, and intellectual stimulation.

Second, because music with distinct attributes is often selected for its capacity to affect one's mood, it was expected that changes in overall emotional states affect music selection criteria. The investigated attributes in the current study displayed three categories related to positive valence/joy, arousal/stimulative, and 'depth' (reflective, clever, emotional; see [36]).

Third, the observed changes in musical behavior were to be investigated depending on the personal situation. Therefore, aspects of changes in daily life and the worries related to the lockdown measures were collected. Items were based on daily topics that moved people in Germany at the time in April 2020 covered by the media and taken from statistical reports by the German government. Trait aspects were of interest that indicate how people deal with stress (prolonged stress reactivity and reactivity to work overload) [32,33], and personality dimensions previously reported to be related to musical behavior, that is openness and extraversion [21,22], and negative emotionality, which represents aspects of anxiety, depression, and emotional volatility [37].

To conclude, the present study covers aspects comparable to other studies, but with a major difference in the methodological approach: that is, the retrospective assessment of the behavior from before the lockdown, which allows for an implicit comparison of changes in musical behavior.
