Summary of PhD thesis

1. Taste in the Digital Age: Music
Streaming Services and the
Performance of Class Distinction
Jack Webster
PhD Web Science
www.jwebster.net

2. Music streaming services, such as
Spotify, Apple Music and Tidal, have
transformed the availability of
music…

3. They afford on-demand access to vast catalogues of
licensed music at little or no cost.

4. They are not only a
vital distribution
channel, but their
influential playlist
brands are a lucrative
vehicle for promoting
artists and reaching
new audiences.

5. In addition,
through the
creation of
personalised
playlists and
recommendations,
the experience of
consuming music is
becoming
personalised.

6. These changes invite us to consider
whether music streaming services are
disrupting the social dynamics of
music consumption.

7. In the 1960’s, the influential
French sociologist, Pierre
Bourdieu (1984), wrote about
how cultural taste and
consumption practices are an
important part of how social
class structures everyday life.
Taste, Class &
Consumption

8. He argued that what and how people engage with cultural
goods is shaped by class background and cultural tastes
serve to affiliate and differentiate people on the
basis of class.

9. Traditionally, a
cultivated
appreciation for
classical music or
jazz defined the
tastes of the upper
and middle classes,
whilst popular
culture was
associated with
working class taste.
Highbrow culture as legitimate taste

10. Taste, Class & Consumption in the
21st Century
Over time, our
understanding of the
relationship between
cultural taste,
consumption and class has
changed.

11. The concept of the ‘cultural omnivore’ was introduced
to describe how the tastes of the middle classes have
changed, shifting from the exclusive consumption of
highbrow culture to a more pluralistic and
cosmopolitan engagement (Peterson and Kern 1996).

12. However, current sociological accounts about
the relationship between music taste,
consumption and class overlook the disruptive
potential of music streaming services.

13. The aim of my PhD was to empirically examine
if and how music streaming services are
shaping how class identity and distinction are
performed through music taste and consumption.

14. How did I try to answer this question?

15. Research Design
Phase 1 Phase 2
• 20 semi-structured interviews
with music industry expert
informants (e.g. music
streaming services, record
labels, distributors, industry
bodies)
• Interviews explored how music
streaming services are shaping
how music is made available to
consumers and what opportunities
and challenges this presents to
incumbents in the recorded music
industry
• 20 semi-structured interviews
with Spotify users from across
class backgrounds
• Interviews explored how music
streaming services are shaping
how class identity and
distinction is performed through
music consumption
Research Design

16. I make no claims to representativeness with the
findings I present. I chose to work with a smaller
number of research participants and look deeply at
their consumption practices and how they relate to
class identity.
In doing so, I point to some of the ways in which
Spotify has the potential to shape the relationship
between music taste, consumption and class which
require further empirical consideration.
Disclaimer

17. What did I find out?

18. Key Finding #1
For members of the middle classes for whom musical
expertise is an important part of their class identity,
using Spotify is closing down opportunities to mobilise
their cultural capital:
• The rate and scale at which music is made by Spotify (e.g.
routine updating of playlists) is undermining the
opportunities for individuals to take their time in
appreciating music as an end in of itself.
• The creation and presentation of personalised playlists and
recommendations is undermining opportunities to display
musical expertise.

19. Key Finding #2
At the same time, however, using Spotify is also creating
new opportunities to deploy and accumulate cultural
capital – especially for younger members of the middle
classes:
• Some are mobilising their cultural capital by turning to vinyl
consumption as a way to oppose the immaterial and ephemeral
nature of consuming music on Spotify.
• Others mobilise their cultural capital by demonstrating their
command over Spotify and their ability to enhance the
experience of consuming music on their own terms (e.g. by
creating playlists, ‘gaming’ the algorithms).

20. Key Finding #1: Spotify and its
Challenge to Traditional Forms of
Cultural Capital

21. My findings suggest:
(1) the rate at which music is made available
by Spotify, and (2) its attempts to
personalise the experience of consuming music,
are closing down opportunities for members of
the middle classes for whom musical expertise
is an important part of their claims to class
distinction to mobilise cultural capital.

22. Musical Expertise and middle-class
identity
Alongside wealth, cultural expertise (i.e.
cultural capital) is one way the middle
classes communicate status and privilege.
Cultural expertise is related to class
privilege because it demonstrates to others
how an individual has the time and resources
to pursue cultural activities.
Cultural expertise is acquired through
immersion in a culturally-rich and confident
family environments, or through education,
especially higher education.
This type of experience and education is not
available to all, thereby enabling is to
serve as a source of class distinction

23. Spotify has increased the
rate at which music is
made available: it
routinely updates the
contents of its playlists
and what is presented to
users on their homepage
changes throughout the
course of a day.
(1) The increasing rate at which music
is made available

24. Spotify breeds a more incidental
relationship with music
The rate at which music is made
available is closing down
opportunities for cultural-
capital rich members of the
middle classes to display their
musical expertise and
appreciation for music as an end
in of itself.
“I’m not taking as much time to get
to know a lot of the music I am
listening to because there’s always
something good a swipe or a tap
away.”

25. (2) Mass
Personalisation
The experience of using Spotify is
becoming increasingly personalised.
Spotify collects vast amounts of data
about user behaviour and has invested in
the latest advancements in music
recommendation technologies to achieve
‘mass personalisation.’
Each of its 180 million users receive
personalised playlists and
recommendations, such as Spotify’s
Discover Weekly playlist.

26. “I do feel a certain amount of pressure to
keep my listening habits wide enough that
I am not getting six months down the line
and realising that, oh, all I'm ever
listening to is this now because this is
all I ever discover.”
For some, music discovery
has been “consigned to the
scrapheap” and it is
generating a concern that
their music tastes are being
“pigeonholed” by Spotify’s
data collection apparatus,
limiting their opportunities
to broaden their musical
horizons.
Music discovery and personalisation

27. These examples demonstrate some of the ways in
which using Spotify is challenging existing
class practices.
For some members of the middle classes, it is
undermining opportunities to mobilise cultural
capital through musical expertise.

28. Yet, the story doesn’t end here…
My research also found that using
Spotify is opening up new
opportunities for members of the
middle classes to mobilise their
cultural capital.

29. Key Finding #2: Spotify and its
Contribution to Emerging Forms of
Cultural Capital

30. Some more theory…

31. Emerging Forms of Cultural Capital
Recent studies have found that
younger members of the middle
classes are finding new ways to
mobilise their cultural capital
(Savage et al 2013; Friedman et
al 2015)
Use of ‘new media’ (e.g. video
games, social media, the Web)
and the consumption of popular
culture for its own sake are
being incorporated into younger
members of middle classes’
claims to distinction.

32. Is using Spotify contributing to
emerging forms of cultural capital?
If so, how?

33. My findings suggest:
(1) Consuming vinyl has become a way to mobilise
cultural capital by resisting the immaterial and
ephemeral nature of consuming music on Spotify.
(2) Using Spotify itself has become part of how
younger members of the middle classes mobilise
their cultural capital (e.g. creating and sharing
playlists, ‘gaming’ the algorithms).

34. (1) Vinyl music consumption and
emerging cultural capital

35. Immateriality
As music has gone from something we predominantly
own to something we access via the Internet, music
has become more immaterial.

36. Ephemerality
The anytime, anywhere access to music Spotify
affords, combined with the rate at which it makes
music available, has made the experience of
consuming music more ephemeral.

37. In contrast to the de-
materialising effect of
Spotify, owning vinyl re-
instates a sense of cultural
ownership. This is reflected
in the ways people are more
selective about what they
choose and why.
Vinyl as Re-
Materialisation
“Owning the vinyl, it’s a lot more
special and you do have a lot more
pride in owning it almost – people do
still say, oh, I’ve got that on vinyl,
you don’t say, oh, I’ve got that on
Spotify. Actually saying that, I’ve got
that on vinyl, is quite special.”
– Christian (Age 24)

38. In contrast to the
ephemerality of
accessing music via
Spotify, listening to
vinyl records is a way
to slow down the
experience of consuming
music, creating the time
and space to appreciate
music as an end in of
itself.
The ‘Slow’ Consumption
of Music
“with vinyl it’s, I bought this
album because I specifically wanted
to own this album […] I’m going to
sit down and listen to this one
album and focus on one single thing
for a little while”
– Jamie (Age 24)

39. (2) Using Spotify and emerging
cultural capital

40. Playlist Creation on
Spotify
Spotify enables its users to
create and share playlists.
People are able to create
their own playlists from
scratch, or edit a pre-
existing playlist. Users can
share playlists publicly on
the platform and build a
following.

41. Playlist creation as a way to convert
cultural capital
Creating and sharing
playlists on Spotify is a
way for some members of the
middle classes to mobilise
their cultural capital and
convert into social status
and prestige. “I take a lot of pride in finding
the right situation for a playlist
and then putting it on and seeing
how people react to it.” - Joel
(Age 22)

42. Indeed, playlist curation has become an occupation in
its own right and a way for some people to convert their
cultural capital and prestige into economic
opportunities.

43. These examples demonstrate some of the ways in
which using Spotify is creating new class
practices.
For some younger members of the middle
classes, it is creating new opportunities to
mobilise cultural capital, such as through
vinyl consumption and playlist creation.

44. Summary
Music streaming services are shaping how class identity
and distinction are performed through the consumption of
music.
On the one hand, Spotify is undermining existing class
practices, closing down opportunities for some members of
the middle classes to mobilise cultural capital through
music consumption.
On the other hand, Spotify is creating other
opportunities to mobilise cultural capital on and off
platform, specifically in terms vinyl music consumption
and playlist curation.

45. Related Works
(Forthcoming) “Spotify vs. Apple Music: Competing and
creating value through exclusivity, curation and
experiences.” Consumption Markets and Culture.
(2016) “Book review: The production and consumption of
music in the digital age.” Information Communication &
Society.
(2016) “Towards a theoretical approach for analysing
music recommender systems as sociotechnical cultural
intermediaries.” Proceedings of the 8th ACM Conference on
Web Science.

46. References
• Bourdieu, Pierre. 1984. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement
of Taste. Translated by Richard Nice. Oxford: Routledge.
• Friedman, Sam, Mike Savage, Laurie Hanquinet, and Andrew Miles. 12.
‘Cultural Sociology and New Forms of Distinction’. Poetics 53: 1–8.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.poetic.2015.10.002.
• Peterson, Richard A., and Roger M. Kern. 1996. ‘Changing Highbrow Taste:
From Snob to Omnivore’. American Sociological Review 61 (5): 900–907.
https://doi.org/10.2307/2096460.
• Savage, Mike, Fiona Devine, Niall Cunningham, Mark Taylor, Yaojun Li,
Johs Hjellbrekke, Brigitte Le Roux, Sam Friedman, and Andrew Miles.
2013. ‘A New Model of Social Class? Findings from the BBC’s Great
British Class Survey Experiment’. Sociology 47 (2): 219–50.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038513481128.

47. www.jwebster.net