The influence our friends have on our music taste: An empirical analysis

In this thesis, we will examine the relationship of social influence and music taste, and how weather influences one’s music taste. This thesis reports results of an empirical investigation of interpersonal relationships on Last.fm, a music-based social network site. In addition, we have shown that temperature, cloud coverage, and sunshine duration can influence the amount of music and also the type of music one listens to. The chief goals of this study were to examine the degree to which music taste is characterized by social influence. Results indicate that although there is some evidence suggesting that one’s peers influence their music taste, we did not observe sufficient significant evidence to conclude this.