Impact of Music Streaming Services on Listening Behaviors

Music Streaming Services 1
Music Streaming Services
Name
Institution Affiliation

Music Streaming Services 2
Introduction
The development of technology has brought changes and new ways of media consumption by the
audiences. The technologies have impacted the behavior of producers and consumers of media
content. Over time, there has been the invention and adoption of music streaming services that
have rocked the industry and, have impacted the conduct of music consumers. This report
focuses on the impact of the music streaming services to the audiences listening behaviors. The
report seeks to unravel the cultural and the economic impacts of these streaming services to the
listening practices of the music audiences. The report will analyze these impacts making
reference to public sphere cultural intermediary. A public sphere is a platform where people
access information and have opportunities to discuss their opinions and views about issues at
hand. On the other hand, intermediary culture is the mediation between production and
consumption. Thus, the report analyzes the cultural and economic impacts of the streaming
services on listening practices based on the public sphere and intermediary culture ideas.
Cultural Impacts
Active and Interactive Listening
Music streaming services have connected various music consumers with each other and allowed
interactions with artists. The ability of music consumers to interact with other users and artist on
music streaming platforms vacate from the traditional passive listenership practices. The
adoption of technology in the development and improvement of music streaming services has
allowed many platforms to come up with user dashboards and interaction sections. The
interactions sections connect the users and artist and allow engagement about the music and the
artists. According to Coffey (2016), Spotify and apple music are among the music streaming

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services platforms that has a connecting area on the dashboard of the app that brings together
users and their favorites artist to relate more. The interactions between consumers and the
musicians give an opportunity for the audiences to share their opinions and preferences among
themselves an aspect that was absent in the traditional music consumption practices.
Additionally, artists are able to give exclusives to their fans. Hagen and Lüders (2017) note that a
connecting section is like actual blog spaces where artists have chances to share exclusive
videos, photos, and post with their fans on the platform. The sharing of these exclusives sparks
discussions and further interactions, bringing together the parties involved. This is different from
the traditional audience practices on the consumption and listenership behavior where the
consumers were dormant.
Additionally, through the music streaming services, audiences are able to review music and offer
music and artist ratings. The platforms extend the discussions about the music and the artist to
other social media platforms with other consumers. The discussions, reviews, and ratings are
new contrary to the previous culture where the music consumers would passively listen to the
music and have no platforms to channel their opinions and views on which artist is good and
what music is preferred among the listeners. According to Coffey (2016), music streaming
services platforms such as Spotify have segments that allow users and artist to give
recommendations. Moreover, the advancement of music and artist discussion among music
consumers in the social media platforms has been enabled by the platforms. Consequently, the
use of the music streaming services has shifted the listener’s behavior from the initial culture of
passive and dormant listenership to the current interactive practices with artists and other music
consumers. The current practices also give platforms for reviews and recommendations
furthering listeners’ interactions and incorporation of their views in music making.

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Explorative and Discovery Listening
The increased use of music streaming services has led to the availability of all genres of music
from all artists to consumers all over the world. The platforms have availed music from across
the borders to listeners who are very far apart. The behavior is contrary to the traditional culture
where listeners would only access the music from their local countries and local artists.
According to Baym (2010), music streaming services have enabled music consumers to access
large and international catalogues of music from different locations of the world. The streaming
service has exposed music consumers to music and artist away from their localities. Arditi
(2014) points out that streaming service has brought about locality spread in the music industry
through the distribution of the music to all locations of the world. The accessibility of the
different genres of music to the global listeners has expanded the music fan base and interaction
of music audiences from across the borders. Additionally, streaming services has enabled the
spread of different messages in music from different artist to a wide audience. Thus, the
streaming services are public sphere platforms that allow artists to voice their message to an
audience sparking discussions among the listeners. On the other hand, the audience access to
global messages in form of music allows them to form opinions and share their views with the
artists, their colleagues, and related audiences. Thus, streaming services have shifted the
traditional listening practices of listening to local music from local artists only accessing global
artist and different genres of music.
Music streaming services have segments that introduce new music and artist to global audiences.
An opportunity for equal access to unlimited information is part of an ideal public sphere. Thus,
the streaming services have changed the consumers’ practices through immediate access to new
artist and music contrary to the traditional culture where artists would rarely know about new