Music, musicians and information seeking behaviour

Abstract

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to examine information seeking behaviour targeted to music information seeking by amateur musicians, accompanied with empirical evidence from a survey on a community concert band. While several studies in the literature have examined information seeking in the context of hedonic motives (e.g. entertainment oriented), music information can also be used for utilitarian purposes by providing amateur musicians the necessary tools to improve their skill and become better in their practice. Design/methodology/approach -A review of the literature on music information seeking and an empirical study on members of an amateur concert band are presented. The theoretical construct of the survey is informed by Wilsons' macro model of information seeking behaviour. This is employed in order to understand information motives and needs, as well as obstacles in information seeking of musicians. Findings -Musicians seek information not only for entertainment but for educational purposes as well as for the acquisition of certain music works. The use of the internet for information seeking as well as the gradual adoption of online social networks has provided access to new musical resources within the digital music networks. Originality/value -A person-centred approach for information seeking behaviour is studied and adapted for musicians. The survey provides new information behaviour results for designers of music information spaces which in turn are creating a new model of the relationship between music and society.

Theoretical and Applied Issues on the Impact of Information on Musical Creativity

“…The book chapter's main concern echoes the belief that there is a strong relation between music information seeking behavior and musical creativity (Lavranos et al, 2015b). Although there is a substantial amount of empirical and theoretical research on music information seeking and retrieval (Weigl & Guastavino, 2011;Kostagiolas et al, 2015) and on musical creativity (Webster, 2002), only a few attempts provide clear conceptual and operational criteria for linking music information seeking behavior and musical creativity (Lavranos et al, 2015a).…”

“…The significance and originality of the current research area should be noted, since it is one of the very few studies providing theoretical issues linking music information seeking behavior and musical creativity. Music information seeking behavior is conceptualized as a socioeconomic phenomenon which arises from information needs related to both personal and social music roles manifested within the everyday life of individuals (Kostagiolas et al, 2015). According to Wilson's (1999) general model of informa-tion seeking behavior (which also demonstrates the search behaviours defined by Ellis (1989) in Figure 1, below), information seeking is considered as an effort to satisfy a set of information needs which are activated by needs created within different contexts: personal (e.g., physiological, affective and cognitive needs), social role related (e.g.…”

“…) are seeking music information (Pierce, 2004;Hunter, 2006). In recent years, professional and amateur musicians have been introduced to a rapidly changing and expanding music information environment (Casey, Veltkamp, Goto, Leman, Rhodes, & Slaney, 2008;Kostagiolas, Lavranos, Korfiatis, Papadatos, & Papavlasopoulos, 2015). Today, music information not only constitutes every musician's matter but also every musician has the opportunity to access a wide range of music information including both national and international resources that are available in print or digital format.…”

“…Although a wide array of studies on music information seeking and retrieval have been made available (e.g., Lee & Downie, 2004;Lee, Downie, & Cunninghamm, 2005;Laplante & Downie, 2006;Laplante, 2010;Lee, 2010;Laplante & Downie, 2011;Weigl & Guastavino, 2011;Kostagiolas et al, 2015) the impact of information and information seeking preferences on musicians' everyday musical creative practices is rather understudied. A number of studies have presented theoretical perspectives in relation to the role of information seeking in reducing uncertainty and satisfying musicians' information needs (Orio, 2006;Kostagiolas et al, 2015).…”

“…A number of studies have presented theoretical perspectives in relation to the role of information seeking in reducing uncertainty and satisfying musicians' information needs (Orio, 2006;Kostagiolas et al, 2015). Other research has focused on music information seeking and how it is changing the way individuals perceive the essence of music and the manner in which collections of musical material are managed for preservation, access, research and other uses (Cunningham, Reeves, & Britland, 2003;Cunningham & Nichols, 2009).…”