Exploring Online Music Listening Behaviors of Musically Sophisticated Users

Abstract

Due to the rise of available online music, a lot of music consumption is moving from traditional offline media to online sources. Online music sources offer almost an unlimited music collection to its users. Hence, how music is consumed by users (e.g., experts) may differ from traditional offline sources. In this work we explored how musically sophisticated users (i.e. experts) consume online music in terms of diversity. To analyze this, we gathered data from two different sources: Last.fm and Spotify. As expertise is defined by the ubiquitousness of experiences, we calculated different diversity measurements to explore how ubiquitous (in terms of diversity) the listening behaviors of users are. We found that different musical sophistication levels correspond to applying diversity related to specific kind of musical characteristics (i.e., artist or genre). Our results can provide knowledge on how systems should be designed to provide better support to expert users. CCS CONCEPTS• Information systems → Recommender systems; • Human-centered computing → User models; User studies.

Perceptions of Diversity in Electronic Music: the Impact of Listener, Artist, and Track Characteristics

“…Furthermore, analyzing the diversity perceived by listeners when exposed to a recommendation list, a positive correlation has been found between the perceived diversity and recommendation attractiveness and the possibility to discover new music [20]. The same authors also explore the link between music sophistication and diversity needs, showing how a higher sophistication corresponds to more diversified listening behaviours [21]. In addition, through semi-structured interviews, authors in [46] examine what listeners look for when faced with diversity-aware recommender systems outputs, characterizing participants' inner and outer diversity as diversity within and outside their own musical preferences.…”

Perceptions of Diversity in Electronic Music: the Impact of Listener, Artist, and Track Characteristics

“…Furthermore, analyzing the diversity perceived by listeners when exposed to a recommendation list, a positive correlation has been found between the perceived diversity, recommendation attractiveness, and the possibility to discover new music [24]. The same authors also explored the link between musical sophistication and diversity needs, showing how a higher sophistication corresponds to more diversified listening behaviours [25]. In addition, through semi-structured interviews, authors in [61] examined what listeners look for when faced with diversity-aware music recommendations, characterizing participants' inner and outer diversity as diversity within and outside their own music preferences.…”