scholarly journals Nothing personal: algorithmic individuation on music streaming platforms

2017 ◽  
Vol 40 (7) ◽  
pp. 1086-1100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Prey
Keyword(s):  
Online Platforms ◽  
Individual Work ◽  
Online Music ◽  
Streaming Services ◽  
Raymond Williams ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Music Streaming

Raymond Williams once wrote, ‘… there are in fact no masses, but only ways of seeing people as masses’. In an age of personalized media, the word ‘masses’ seems like an anachronism. Nevertheless, if Williams were to study contemporary online platforms, he would no doubt conclude that there are in fact no individuals, but only ways of seeing people as individuals. This article explores this idea by taking a closer look at online music streaming services. It first conducts a comparison of how two leading streaming platforms conceive of the individual music listener. Then, drawing from Gilbert Simondon’s theory of individuation, it demonstrates how ways of seeing the individual work to enact the individual on these platforms. In particular, ways of seeing are heavily influenced by the consumer categories that are defined and demanded by advertisers. This article concludes with an examination of how commercial imperatives shape ‘ways of seeing’ and ‘algorithmic individuation’ on music streaming platforms.

‘Don’t mess with my algorithm’: Exploring the relationship between listeners and automated curation and recommendation on music streaming services

First Monday ◽  
2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophie Freeman ◽  
Martin Gibbs ◽  
Bjørn Nansen
Keyword(s):  
Recommender Systems ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Music Listening ◽  
Music Recommendation ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Streaming Services ◽  
Music Recommender Systems ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Music Streaming

Given access to huge online collections of music on streaming platforms such as Spotify or Apple Music, users have become increasingly reliant on algorithmic recommender systems and automated curation and discovery features to find and curate music. Based on participant observation and semi-structured interviews with 15 active users of music streaming services, this article critically examines the user experience of music recommendation and streaming, seeking to understand how listeners interact with and experience these systems, and asking how recommendation and curation features define their use in a new and changing landscape of music consumption and discovery. This paper argues that through daily interactions with algorithmic features and curation, listeners build complex socio-technical relationships with these algorithmic systems, involving human-like factors such as trust, betrayal and intimacy. This article is significant as it positions music recommender systems as active agents in shaping music listening habits and the individual tastes of users.

scholarly journals DEMYSTIFYING MUSICAL PREFERENCES AT TURKISH MUSIC MARKET THROUGH AUDIO FEATURES OF SPOTIFY CHARTS

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 264-279
Author(s):  
Fatih PINARBAÅžI
Keyword(s):  
Descriptive Statistics ◽  
Popular Song ◽  
Energy Characteristics ◽  
Audio Features ◽  
Popular Songs ◽  
Music Consumption ◽  
Online Music ◽  
Streaming Services ◽  
Music Market ◽  
Music Streaming

Online music streaming services are one of the important actors in music consumption for today’s consumers. In addition to widespread use of mobile devices, many changes in the patterns of music consumption are witnessed such as the purchase of single tracks instead of albums, listening to music on different platforms, and personalized music consumption options. This study aims to examine the concept of music consumption in Turkey through audio characteristics of popular songs. Top 200 popular song-lists for 6 months period are chosen as sample and audio characteristics provided by Spotify API service regarding 676 unique songs are analyzed. Following descriptive statistics of Turkey Music Market, clustering methodology is employed and three different clusters for songs are concluded. Finally, decision tree methodology is employed to classify the dataset with popularity scores and audio characteristics together, while loudness and energy characteristics are found as significant classifiers.

scholarly journals The evolution and consequences of digital rights management in relation to online music streaming

Legal Studies ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Nick Scharf
Keyword(s):  
Digital Rights Management ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Copyright Law ◽  
Secondary Markets ◽  
Record Industry ◽  
Digital Rights ◽  
Rights Management ◽  
Online Music ◽  
Streaming Services ◽  
Music Streaming

Abstract Streaming services now provide the dominant way in which music is distributed and consumed online. Digital rights management (DRM) lies at the heart of this trend and has evolved alongside a movement from copy-based to streaming-based consumption. This shift poses a number of new and unique issues. Music streaming services have changed the nature of the product offered, with musical content becoming de-bundled and reduced to a series of permissions covered by DRM and associated licences, leaving users trapped in a permission-based system. This may create tension with copyright law principles regarding personal ownership and exhaustion of rights in relation to secondary markets, but through analysing relevant US and European case law it can be demonstrated that there is little, if any, legal opportunity for digital secondary markets to emerge. There are also further specific consequences which may affect artists relating to musical diversity and the composition of popular music and, also, consequences regarding the changing nature of the Internet itself. In this context copyright remains centrally important, but only in establishing the initial proprietary rights that enable subsequent DRM and licence-based online exploitation, indicative of a re-establishment of record industry power that is now allied to streaming platforms.

scholarly journals The metaphors we stream by: Making sense of music streaming

First Monday ◽  
2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anja Nylund Hagen
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Method ◽  
Internet Technology ◽  
Music Listening ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Self Reports ◽  
Online Music ◽  
Streaming Services ◽  
Ways Of Being ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Music Streaming

In Norway music-streaming services have become mainstream in everyday music listening. This paper examines how 12 heavy streaming users make sense of their experiences with Spotify and WiMP Music (now Tidal). The analysis relies on a mixed-method qualitative study, combining music-diary self-reports, online observation of streaming accounts, Facebook and last.fm scrobble-logs, and in-depth interviews. By drawing on existing metaphors of Internet experiences we demonstrate that music-streaming services can make sense as tools, places, and ways of being. Music streaming as lifeworld mediation is discussed as a fourth framework for understanding online music experiences, particularly those arising from mobile and ubiquitous characteristics of contemporary Internet technology.

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