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Social tagging has become a very common way to index different types of resources on the web. Less prevalent in music than in other domains, social tagging is nevertheless used in a popular recommender system, Last.fm. Although the number of publications on tagging and folksonomies has exploded in the last few years, music tagging is still not well studied. In this paper, we present a study of tagging practices of Last.fm users. We examine the social tagging of songs during the first three months after their release. Our analysis shows that the release of a song triggers a burst in tagging activity that lasts two weeks, after what it decreases sharply and then remains fairly constant for the next ten weeks. We also find that a majority of songs do not get tagged during the first week and that tagging was positively related to popularity. Finally, we find that tags that have been frequently applied to a given song are more likely to be genre related, shorter in length, and relatively objective than tags that have been applied only once.Keywords: Social tagging; music indexing; music recommender systems Resumo A etiquetagem social (social tagging) tornou-se uma forma muito comum de indexar diferentes tipos de recursos na web. Menos predominante na música do que em outros domínios, a etiquetagem social é utilizada em um popular sistema de recomendação, Last.fm. Embora o número de publicações sobre atribuição de tags (etiquetas) e folksonomia tenha explodido nos últimos anos, a atribuição de tags à música permanece pouco estudada. Neste artigo, apresentamos um estudo das práticas de atribuição de tags dos usuários do Last.fm. Examinamos a etiquetagem social de músicas durante os primeiros três meses após sua liberação. Nossa análise mostra que a liberação de uma música desencadeia uma explosão nas atividades de atribuição de tags que dura duas semanas, depois essa atividade diminui de forma acentuada e, então, permanece razoavelmente constante nas próximas 10 semanas. Também verificamos que a maioria das músicas não recebem tags durante a primeira semana e que a atribuição de tags foi positivamente relacionada à popularidade. Finalmente, constatamos que as tags que são frequentemente aplicadas a determinada música são mais relacionadas ao gênero, são menores em extensão e relativamente mais objetivas do que tags que tenham sido aplicadas uma única vez.Palavras-chave: Etiquetagem social; tag; indexação de música; sistemas de recomendação de música Esta obra está licenciada sob uma Licença Creative Commons.

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Social tagging has become a common practice across a variety of platforms on the Web. In this panel, we propose to start with one title, Casino Royale, a James Bond novel by Ian Fleming, and the other cultural products that emanated from it (e.g., two movies, one song, visuals and images, articles and blog posts) to explore social tagging practices and other user-generated content in a variety of different platforms. Goodreads, Last.fm, WordPress, Flickr and various library discovery systems will be used to expose the connections users establish between and among cultural products as well as to compare what tagging yields in different platforms. The results will be situated within the context of broader studies being performed by the panelists and audience members will be asked to contribute material for real-time searches.

Structured Abstract PurposeMost studies pertaining to social tagging focus on one platform or platform type, thus limiting the scope of their findings. This study explores social tagging practices across four platforms in relation to cultural products associated with the book Casino Royale, by Ian Fleming. Design/methodology/approachA layered and nested case study approach was used to analyze data from four online platforms: Goodreads, Last.fm, WordPress, and public library social discovery platforms. The top-level case study focuses on the book Casino Royale, by Ian Fleming, and its derivative products. The analysis of tagging practices in each of the four online platforms is nested within the top-level case study. 'Casino Royale' was conceptualized as a cultural product (the book), its derived products (e.g., movies, theme songs), as well as a keyword in blogs. A qualitative, inductive, and context-specific approach was chosen to identify commonalities in tagging practices across platforms whilst taking into account the uniqueness of each platform. 2 FindingsThe four platforms comprise different communities of users, each platform with its own cultural norms and tagging practices. Traditional access points in the library catalogues focused on the subject, location, and fictitious characters of the book. User-generated content across the four platforms emphasized historical events and periods related to the book, and highlighted more subjective access points, such as recommendations, tone, mood, reaction, and reading experience. Revealing shifts occur in the tags between the original book and its cultural derivatives: Goodreads and library catalogues focus almost exclusively on the book, while Last.fm and WordPress make additional cross-references to a wider range of different cultural products, including books, movies, and music. The analyses also yield apparent similarities in certain platforms, such as recurring terms, phrasing and composite or multifaceted tags, as well as a strong presence of genre-related terms for the book and music. Originality/valueThe layered and nested case study approach presents a more comprehensive theoretical viewpoint and methodological framework by which to explore the study of user-generated metadata pertaining to a range of related cultural products across a variety of online platforms.