1st Edition
Streaming Sounds Musical Listening in the Digital Age
In a time when music streaming has become the dominant mode of consuming music recordings, this book interrogates how users go about listening to music in their everyday lives in a context where streaming services are focused on not only the circulation of music for users but also the circulation of user data and attention.
Drawing insights directly from interviews with users, music streaming is explained as never merely a neutral technology but rather one that seeks to actively shape user engagement. Users respond to streaming platforms with some relishing these aspects that provide music to be drawn into daily activities while others show signs of resistance. It is this tension that this book explores.
This unique and accessible study will be ideal reading for both scholars and students of popular music studies, communication studies, sociology, media and cultural studies.
Introduction: Streaming and the transformation of music listening 1. User-made playlists and the shaping of social interaction 2. Platform-generated playlists and the curation of musical listening 3. Social media convergence: Presenting the self through music listening 4. The networking of music streaming: Facilitating interaction and obtaining discretion 5. Ubiquitous music streaming: Incorporating music into the everyday
Biography
Michael James Walsh is an Australian sociologist and Associate Professor at the University of Canberra, Australia. His research interests include the sociology of interaction, the writings of Erving Goffman, cultural sociology, technology and music. A chief dimension of his research involves exploring the reception of communication technologies as they relate to and impact on social interaction.
"In the space of less than twenty years, music streaming has evolved from a niche practice into a key mode of music distribution and consumption across the world. Never before has so much music been instantly available to so many people. There have been bountiful attempts to examine streaming from a music-industry perspective, but research on the everyday significance of streaming for music fans has lagged behind. As one of the first dedicated books on this topic, Walsh’s Streaming Sounds is critically important reading for anyone interested in how music streaming is used as an everyday resource by music fans and in the presentation of self and the management of social interactions."
Andy Bennett, Griffith University, Australia
