Harvard Study: US Traffic Deaths Rise 15% on Major Album Release Days

A Harvard Medical School study published in JAMA Network Open found US traffic deaths rise 15 percent on days major albums drop on streaming platforms. Researchers cross-referenced federal FARS crash data with Spotify daily charts across 233,809 fatal collisions from 2017–2022. The ten highest-streamed releases correlated with roughly 182 excess fatalities, or 18.2 additional deaths per spike day. The study establishes correlation, not causal liability.