Music Gets You Talking survey

If a piece of music reminds you of a place and time and makes you want to connect with someone, you’re not alone. In a recent international survey conducted by Nokia (NYSE: NOK), there is a distinct relationship between people and the music they hear.

The survey results, which formed the foundation for Nokia’s “Music Gets You Talking” advertising campaign, also underscores the theme of the biggest New Year party of 2006 – Nokia New Year’s Eve. Uniting people around the world with events in five cities and a vast TV and Internet audience expected to be 150 million, Nokia New Year’s Eve will bring people together through music at one of the happiest times of the year.

The survey showed that globally, people were most likely to call a friend if they heard a song that brought back memories – 45% of respondents in India were most likely to, compared with about one-quarter of the respondents in France. More than 30% of respondents globally indicated they would call their partner.

Would you call an “ex” when a song stirs up memories? Globally, 10.7% of respondents indicated their former partners would be on their call list. In six of the seven countries surveyed, more men than women would do just that, with 21% of Great Britain’s males indicating they would call this group. In the United States, 19% of women surveyed said they would contact an ex-partner. Globally, calling Mom or Dad ranked fourth with 24% of respondents, while on average globally daughters are more likely to call their parents after hearing a memorable song than are sons. Of all the countries surveyed, the respondents in France were least likely to call their parents with only 8% of males indicating they would.

On average, out of the seven countries surveyed, more men than women would call a friend. The highest mentions of calling a friend were in the United States and India. Women in Egypt, France and Mexico indicated they would call their partner before their friends while across the countries surveyed worldwide, men would feel more like calling friends than partners.

In the United States and Great Britain, women respondents were more likely to call someone they haven’t spoken to for a long while than their partner. Forty-five percent of women in those two countries made this statement. According to the survey, in the U.S., calling someone they hadn’t spoken to for a while rated higher with respondents than calling their partner.

Men in most countries surveyed were likely to call someone who they wanted to be their partner – 20% of men in China and 19% of males in the United States would make contact with a potential partner.

Calling a boss when hearing a memorable song rated low on the scale; however, in China and India, 7% of responding men indicated they would call their boss, three times the amount of other countries surveyed.

The survey was conducted in August and September 2006 by Nokia in China, Egypt, France, Great Britain, India, Mexico and the United States with 1,000 people or more surveyed in each country.