Ubiquitous tunes, virtuous archiving and catering for algorithms: the tethered affairs of people and music streaming services

Abstract

Music streaming services all provide affordable and easy access to massive databases of music and instead attempt to increase customer loyalty by optimizing personalized recommendations and offering opportunities for listeners to build their 'own' music libraries. In this paper, these features are operationalized as the convenience, price, archive and algorithmic value of streaming services. Existing studies detail the multitude of ways of making sense of these services, but do not allow for specifying what features matter more. Drawing on an online survey and interviews, this study indicates that price, convenience and archive value predict continued intention to use music streaming services. Survey results negate the importance of algorithmic value, but the interviews suggest that for some, algorithmic individuation is too evasive to be noticed. Those who 'see' and value recommendations 'cater for algorithms' and consider their own listening and archiving practices as input for optimizing output. Combined, the different features set the stage for both overt and covert tethering of people and streaming services.

Conceptualizing the Experiential Affordances of Watching Online TV

“…. as they are recommended based on what you’ve watched.” Vilde (31) finds personalized recommendations “alright, although they don’t always match what I like.” Perceptions of personalization and algorithms are hard to discern since they represent invisible frames (Johnson 2019) that often escape people’s awareness (Gran et al 2020; Lüders 2020). Gran et al (2020) find that highly educated exhibit higher levels of algorithmic awareness and more critical attitudes toward recommendations.…”

Towards streaming as a dominant mode of media use?A user typology approach to music and television streaming

“…Media and communication researchers tend to pay less attention to these issues, and instead address questions of practices and sense-making. Studies of music streamers have contributed knowledge on how people make sense of social features (Hagen & Lüders, 2017), playlisting practices (Hagen, 2015;Sinclair & Tinson, 2017), and the role of algorithms and discovery (Kjus, 2016;Lüders, 2019Lüders, , 2020Nowak, 2016). Research on the use of television streaming services has examined how people watch multiple episodes in succession -that is, "binge-watching" or "marathon viewing" (Merikivi et al, 2018;Pittman & Sheehan, 2015;Steiner & Xu, 2018;Sung et al, 2018).…”

What do you pay for all you can eat? Pricing practices and strategies in streaming media services

“…So-called exclusive or original content plays a major part in the value proposition of video services, but audio is also moving in this direction, for instance, with Spotify committing resources to podcasts and audio books. Editorial and automated recommendations are other ways of creating distinctions between services From the consumer's point of view, streaming offers are attractive for the convenience of access to vast content catalogues available on multiple platforms at a price point comparatively low to other digital and physical models (Herbert et al, 2018;Im & Jung, 2016;Lüders, 2020;Oyedele & Simpson, 2017).…”