User perspectives on critical factors for collaborative playlists

Today, collaborative playlists (CPs) translate long-standing social practices around music consumption to enable people to curate and listen to music together over streaming platforms. Yet despite the critical role of CPs in digitally connecting people through music, we still understand very little about the needs and desires of real-world users, and how CPs might be designed to best serve them. To bridge this gap in knowledge, we conducted a survey with CP users, collecting open-ended text responses on what aspects of CPs they consider most important and useful, and what they viewed as missing or desired. Using thematic analysis, we derived from these responses the Codebook of Critical CP Factors, which comprises eight categories. We gained insights into which aspects of CPs are particularly useful—for instance, the ability for multiple collaborators to edit a single playlist—and which are absent and desired—such as the ability for collaborators to communicate about a CP or the music contained therein. From these findings we propose design implications to inform further design of CP functionalities and platforms, and highlight potential benefits and challenges related to their adoption in current music services.

Frontiers: Virus Shook the Streaming Star: Estimating the COVID-19 Impact on Music Consumption

How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected the consumption of audio music streaming?

Cultural Divergence in popular music: the increasing diversity of music consumption on Spotify across countries

The digitization of music has changed how we consume, produce, and distribute music. In this paper, we explore the effects of digitization and streaming on the globalization of popular music. While some argue that digitization has led to more diverse cultural markets, others consider that the increasing accessibility to international music would result in a globalized market where a few artists garner all the attention. We tackle this debate by looking at how cross-country diversity in music charts has evolved over 4 years in 39 countries. We analyze two large-scale datasets from Spotify, the most popular streaming platform at the moment, and iTunes, one of the pioneers in digital music distribution. Our analysis reveals an upward trend in music consumption diversity that started in 2017 and spans across platforms. There are now significantly more songs, artists, and record labels populating the top charts than just a few years ago, making national charts more diverse from a global perspective. Furthermore, this process started at the peaks of countries’ charts, where diversity increased at a faster pace than at their bases. We characterize these changes as a process of Cultural Divergence, in which countries are increasingly distinct in terms of the music populating their music charts.

Musical pantophagy: Is there an effect on changes in preference resulting from repeated exposure?

The purpose of this research was to examine the effects of musical pantophagy, classical music consumption, and initial receptivity to select musical examples on changes in preference rating resulting from a program of repeated exposure. Participants included undergraduate students enrolled in a section of music appreciation at a large Southeastern university ( n = 67). Data were collected using a research designed preference rating measure (PRM) administered during a 5-week period within which there were eight test measures. Participants were divided into quartiles. Pre- to post-test measures resulted in a general positive trend for all participants. Comparisons of Q1 (lowest pantophagy) and Q3 (highest pantophagy) on PRMs 1–8 yielded no differences between groups, and PRM 8 was significantly different from PRM 1 for both groups. The same comparisons for Q1 (non-Classical music consumption) indicated significant difference with large effect size and for Q1 (lowest initial receptivity) indicated significant difference. Results suggest that regardless of musical pantophagy, repetition is an effective means by which to increase affective response to music, and that students who do not currently consume formal art music and who have low initial receptivity may report greater increases in affective response to music over time.

Perfect Pitch

432 Hz music is a relatively recent internet-based phenomenon that has attracted listeners and musicians from all parts of the world. Increasingly connected via social media, listeners in this subculture do not necessarily share the same musical tastes or backgrounds. Rather, they have in common a belief that music tuned to the standard pitch of A-440 Hz is in some sense “out of tune” with nature or humanity. Alternatively, they prefer (and in some cases promote and advocate for) music that is tuned to a slightly lower, A-432 Hz standard. This preference is, for many, connected to beliefs that the A-432 Hz tuning reference can be physically, psychologically, and even spiritually beneficial. This article examines the promise of—and skepticism towards—the concept of “frequency” that is at the center of the 432 Hz phenomenon. It draws from research into some of the common historical, scientific, and conspiratorial claims made by 432 Hz advocates, as well as from qualitative data collected from dedicated 432 Hz listeners. After exploring the listening practices and media engagement of 432 Hz proponents, the article asks how the rise of 432 Hz music might relate to other recent and emerging forms of music consumption, the affective marketing of sound, and the management of personal sonic space.

MUSIC RADIO RECORDINGS AS OBJECTS OF THE ARCHIVAL STORAGE

The purpose of the article is to characterize the peculiarities of organizing the storage of musical audio recordings in the repositories of radio stations. The methodology is based on the use of general scientific and special methods. The universal nature of music as a special language determines the internationality of music art. From the moment of birth and during the past years verbal report of the unwritten conditions, that are connected to music sound record accumulation in different cultural institutions, has changed not once. The transformations of this relationship were caused by different reasons – social, political, technical, and technological nature. In current high-technology conditions integration properties inherent in the holistic process of creation, circulation, and spread of information, accumulated in music compositions for radio. Today the formation of the new qualitative communication area with the rapid growth of the sound messages streams level occurs. The article is dedicated to the scientific problem of the preservation and use of music audio recordings of radio companies as objects of archival storage. Archived musical radio records are defined as a special cluster of the communication area. The socio-communicative approach is the methodological basis of the publication. The scientific novelty. The main directions of ensuring the preservation, restoration, and restoration of music audio recordings of archival audio recordings are substantiated, as well as the peculiarities of digitization and use of sound documents of this type, are revealed. The specifics of the formation of the respective collections are considered on the example of the BBC Archive Center and The British Library Sound Archive as leading foreign institutions where music records are stored. It is concluded that digital technologies have led to a change in the culture of music consumption and, accordingly, have transformed the processes of storing music archival recordings in the repositories of radio companies, which have acquired specific properties. Examining music radio recordings as archival objects have shown that in the age of the digital revolution, the music industry around the world has undergone significant changes. Both the revenue structure and the cost structure of record labels and music radio companies have fundamentally changed. Conclusions. Digital technologies have led to a change in the culture of music consumption (there has been a change in the ideology of authorship for music products) and the emergence of digital recording technologies that use artificial intelligence, digital workstations, etc. In this regard, the specifics of the organization of storage of music archival recordings were transformed, in particular in the phono repositories of radio companies that have acquired specific properties of the service grade (reprint of archival music recordings that were previously specially recorded for radio stations).