Interac’s new feature tracks Canadians expenses with a musical twist

Spending money can be music to your ears with Interac’s latest feature, the Sound of Spending, which sets shopping trends in Canada during the pandemic to music.

Whether it was money spent on a good meal, home-related expenses, entertainment, travel, or pandemic-induced online purchases, spending was mapped using a variety of musical instruments that revealed the ebbs and flows in Canadian spending habits.

The Sound of Spending uses a combination of creativity, collected data and unique technology to represent spending through music. Interac‘s soundtrack, generated from national data it collected over the past year, allows users to hear how spending levels translated into a catchy tune.

When the pandemic broke out in March 2020, Canadians spent a lot on food, with grocery expenses increasing by 15 per cent. A month later, in April 2020, Canadians’ spending hit a low note because of the declared state of emergency causing spending frequency on restaurants, travel, and entertainment to plummet by 35 per cent.

But staying at home meant more time to spruce up living spaces and Canadians hit the high notes in May 2020, with spending on home accessories and DIY projects up 186 per cent.

After the holidays, COVID-19 cases were rising, and spending decreased exponentially in January 2021, with the frequency of spending associated with shopping down by more than 50 per cent.

Now that the economy is opening up and vaccination rates are rising, Canadians are going out, and the frequency of spending related to shopping and entertainment is hitting a high note once again, with increases of 37 per cent and 14 per cent respectively.

Interac’s Sound of Spending tool doesn’t just rock to national spending data, though; the company encourages Canadians to try it for themselves by uploading their own spending statistics to generate a song that reflects them. They can also compare their songs with national data.

Go to “interac.ca/soundofspending”, enter the dollar amount spent each month in each category, and Interac’s digital tool will generate a personal soundtrack that reflects your past year.

Check out the ITB Sound of Spending soundtrack, created, just for fun, from random values.

Would you recommend this article?

Share

Thanks for taking the time to let us know what you think of this article!
We'd love to hear your opinion about this or any other story you read in our publication.


Jim Love, Chief Content Officer, IT World Canada

Featured Download

Samira Balsara
Samira Balsara
Samira is a writer for IT World Canada. She is currently pursuing a journalism degree at Toronto Metropolitan University (formally known as Ryerson) and hopes to become a news anchor or write journalistic profiles. You can email her at [email protected]

Featured Story

How the CTO can Maintain Cloud Momentum Across the Enterprise

Embracing cloud is easy for some individuals. But embedding widespread cloud adoption at the enterprise level is...

Related Tech News

Get ITBusiness Delivered

Our experienced team of journalists brings you engaging content targeted to IT professionals and line-of-business executives delivered directly to your inbox.

Featured Tech Jobs