| Contents |
Introduction: fields of research -- Music, the Internet, streaming: ongoing debates -- Online music in everyday life: contexts and practicies -- Music as part of connectivity culture -- Clouds, streams, materiality: perceptions of musical value in the age of abundance -- Spotify as the soundtrack to your life: encountering music in the customized archive -- VK and music in the social network: an expression of a post-recorded culture -- YouTube and music video streaming: participation, intermediation and spreadability -- Phones, applications, mobility: framing music use on the go. |
| Abstract |
This book examines how the Internet has become integrated in contemporary music use, by focusing on streaming as a practice and a technology for music consumption. The backdrop to this enquiry is the digitization of society and culture, where the music industry has undergone profound disruptions, and where music streaming has altered listening modes and meanings of music in everyday life. The objective of this book is to shed light on what these transformations mean for listeners, by looking at their adaptation in specific cultural contexts, but also by considering how online music platforms and streaming services guide music listeners in specific ways. Drawing on case studies from Moscow and Stockholm, and providing analysis of Spotify, VK and YouTube as popular but distinct sites for music, this book discusses, through a qualitative, cross-cultural, study, questions around music and value, music sharing, modes of engaging with music, and the way that contemporary music listening is increasingly part of mobile, automated and computational processes. Offering a nuanced perspective on these issues, it adds to research about music and digital media, shedding new light on music cultures as they appear today. As such, this volume will appeal to scholars of media, sociology and music with interests in digital technologies. |
