{"id":11948,"date":"2025-01-31T10:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-31T10:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/?p=11948"},"modified":"2025-01-30T19:47:35","modified_gmt":"2025-01-30T19:47:35","slug":"listening-to-music-and-being-tracked-in-the-streaming-age","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/2025\/01\/31\/listening-to-music-and-being-tracked-in-the-streaming-age\/","title":{"rendered":"Listening to Music (and Being Tracked) In the Streaming Age"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n Michael James Walsh , <\/span>“\u2018I\u2019m also slightly conscious of how much I\u2019m listening to something\u2019: Music streaming and the transformation of music listening,” Media, Culture & Society<\/em>,<\/a><\/span> 2023<\/span><\/div>\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A phone with earphones plugged in, displaying the Spotify logo. “spotify musique mp3<\/a>” by downloadsource.fr is licensed under CC BY 2.0.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2016, Spotify launched a viral campaign called \u201cSpotify Wrapped,\u201d which aggregates users\u2019 listening activity and info from the past year, showing key statistics like how many minutes of music they listened to, their top artists, genres, and songs. Since then, people have annually taken to social media to post the highlights of their Spotify Wrapped and reflect on their public-facing reputation. Streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music feature social media-like interfaces, including a profile, friends list, and listening activity streams, which broadcast private listening activity to virtual communities. Features like these pose questions about how data collection and streaming shape how we perform our identities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a recent article, Michael James Walsh<\/a> argues that self-presentation via social media contributes to the blurring between our public and private identities. Walsh draws from Erving Goffman<\/a>, who likens interactions to performances on a stage. The front stage is carefully managed to ensure a convincing performance to others, while the backstage is where we prepare for these performances. In the backstage, nobody is watching, so we can be our \u201ctrue selves.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>Through interviews with music streaming service users in Australia during COVID-19, Walsh found that blending social media and music listening enables distant individuals to monitor and react to each other\u2019s taste in music. Spotify\u2019s social media-like features heighten user\u2019s consciousness of what they are listening to and how their social networks may react.Spotify\u2019s social media-like features heighten user\u2019s consciousness of what they are listening to and how their social networks may react.<\/span> One interviewee expressed discomfort with how their music and <\/em>state of mind are broadcasted to their social networks: \u201cSometimes you listen to things in a personal context. You don\u2019t necessarily want to communicate how you\u2019re feeling with other people.\u201d <\/em>Another interviewee cited the Spotify Wrapped feature as a source of undesired self-consciousness: \u201cThere\u2019s that wrap up at the end of the year. So, I\u2019m also slightly conscious of how much I\u2019m listening to something and, you know, like it\u2019s not\u2026 is it embarrassing, but is it?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Walsh finds that users also feel resigned to the sheer amount of data collection we experience today. Compared to previous eras of private listening, from records to cassette tapes to CDs to iPods, streaming services make listening activity broadcastable to friends and followers and<\/em> recorded by companies. Ultimately, this article highlights how the social media-like features of music streaming today contribute to worries about our public reputation and the burden of constant data collection. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michael James Walsh , “\u2018I\u2019m also slightly conscious of how much I\u2019m listening to something\u2019: Music streaming and the transformation of music listening,” Media, Culture & Society, 2023 A phone with earphones plugged in, displaying the Spotify logo. “spotify musique mp3” by downloadsource.fr is licensed under CC BY 2.0. In 2016, Spotify launched a viral […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2217,"featured_media":11949,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[139342,139336,139362,139333,139348,139346,139356,139324,139332,139357,138469,139351,139363,139337,139364,139326,139331,139338,139334,139347,139339,115,138731,139340,139354,139365,139335,139350,139330,139343,139355,139358,139344,139329,139360,139328,139345,139327,139353,139359,102543,732,295,139323,139325,139322,2143,139361,139349,139341,139352,139002],"class_list":["post-11948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","tag-algorithmic-influence","tag-apple-music","tag-audience-perception","tag-backstage","tag-behavioral-tracking","tag-consumer-behavior","tag-cultural-analysis","tag-data-collection","tag-digital-culture","tag-digital-ethics","tag-digital-footprints","tag-digital-interactions","tag-digital-self","tag-digital-sociology","tag-entertainment-sociology","tag-erving-goffman","tag-front-stage","tag-identity-construction","tag-listening-habits","tag-media-consumption","tag-media-studies","tag-music","tag-music-industry","tag-music-sharing","tag-music-streaming-culture","tag-online-engagement","tag-online-reputation","tag-online-self-awareness","tag-performance","tag-personal-data","tag-personalization","tag-platform-studies","tag-privacy-concerns","tag-private-identity","tag-psychological-impact","tag-public-identity","tag-public-vs-private","tag-self-presentation","tag-social-consciousness","tag-social-dynamics","tag-social-influence","tag-social-media","tag-social-networks","tag-spotify","tag-spotify-wrapped","tag-streaming","tag-surveillance","tag-tech-and-identity","tag-technology-and-society","tag-user-behavior","tag-viral-marketing","tag-virtual-communities"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/files\/2025\/01\/16373624539_f52b7bae87_o.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2217"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11948"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11948\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11952,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11948\/revisions\/11952"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}