Russians are listening to more heavy metal and sad songs in lieu of upbeat running music as the seasons change, according to internet giant Mail.ru Group voice-assistant research cited by Russian media Monday.
Mail.ru Group began beta-testing its voice assistant Marusya this summer to compete with rival tech giant Yandex’s Alice and online bank Tinkoff’s Oleg on the voice-assistant market.
Users began asking Marusya to play predominantly heavy metal starting in September, the state-run TASS news agency cited Mail.ru Group’s research as saying.
Requests for sad music, predominantly jazz and blues, were said to have increased by 17% in that period. House, techno and other types of electronic music were also popular genres among the Russian voice assistant’s users.
Marusya has received half as many requests for running and training music since September compared to the summer months, TASS cited Mail.ru Group’s findings as saying.
The voice-activated assistant ranked The Beatles, Rammstein, Black Sabbath, Passenger and Metallica as its most popular foreign artists. Pro-Kremlin rapper Timati was named the most popular Russian artist, followed by Monetochka, Leningrad, BI-2 and Auktsyon.
Around one in five voice messages sent to Marusya ask it to play music, Mail.ru Group said. Almost one in three of those requests entrust the choice of songs to Marusya.
