Laid-back listeners, pioneers, and scavengers: a user perspective on algorithmic effects in music consumption

Online music streaming platforms allow people to have access to a whole catalogue of songs and artists to discover from the comfort of their own mobile device, wherever they are. Streaming platforms provide users with personal recommendations trough an algorithm. These developments caused concerns and raised questions regarding the effect this may have on peoples’ music consumption. Although plenty of existing research has been done about this matter, there still is a gap concerning how people perceive the effects of the algorithm on their listening behavior. Algorithms and AI are playing an increasingly important role in people's lives. Not only by using the music app Spotify but also with new developments such as chatGPT and OpenAI. Due to these developments people are suddenly becoming more aware of the possibilities that AI has to offer. It is therefore interesting to find out how people perceive the algorithm on Spotify, whether they are aware of it and whether they think that the algorithm influences their music listening behavior. This research focuses on a combination of these two developments and thus merges the research streams of algorithmic effects on music listening behavior with the research streams of technological acceptance of algorithms. Through a qualitative approach, 14 in-depth interviews have been conducted to find answers to the research question: How do Spotify users perceive the Spotify algorithm and how do they think the algorithm contributes to their listening behaviour? This was followed by a constructivist grounded theory with which the researcher was able to identify patterns in relation to participant’s listening behavior, their perception and technological acceptance of the Spotify algorithm and their ways of discovering music trough Spotify. Overall people are very positive about the algorithm on Spotify, they feel like the algorithm on the application helps them and is therefore perceived as effective and convenient. However, when it comes to the discovery of music, people feel like the algorithm limits them. In their opinion the algorithm is great when it comes to discovering music within their comfort zone, but does not encourage them to discover music outside of their comfort zone. In addition, the researcher was able to identify three types of listeners, laid-back listeners are a group mostly consisting of women, this group is the least aware of the algorithm, they mostly listen to their own playlists and spend less time listening to Spotify owned playlists. They mostly discover new music trough the radio or trough friends. The pioneers are a group consisting of both men and women, they are aware of the algorithm and use it to their advantage, they find it very helpful and spend more time actively discovering new music outside of their comfort zone.Lastly the scavengers, consisting of only men, seem to understand the workings of the algorithm. However, they are a bit more sceptical towards the technology of the algorithm because they feel like it’s not good enough yet, they expect more of it. They do however also see it as a convenient technology.