Influences on the Social Practices Surrounding Commercial Music Services: A Model for Rich Interactions

Music can play an important role in social experiences and interactions. Technologies in-use affect these experiences and interactions and as they continue to evolve, social behaviors and norms surrounding them also evolve. In this paper, we explore the social aspects of commercial music services through focus group observation and interview data. We seek to better understand how existing services are used for social music practices and can be improved. We identified 9 social practices and 24 influences surrounding commercial music services. Based on the user data, we created a model of these practices and influences that provides a lens through which social experiences surrounding commercial music services can be understood. An understanding of these social practices within their contextual ecosystem help inform what influences should be considered when designing new technologies. Our findings include the identification of: the underlying relationships between practices and their influences; practices and influences that inform the weight of relationships in social networks; social norms to be considered when designing social features; influences that add additional insight to previously observed behaviors; and a detailed explanation of how music selection and listening practices can be supported by commercial music services.