Investigating User Perceptions Underlying Social Music Behavior Using Q Methodology

While prior studies investigating the social aspects of music provide a landscape of users’ various social behaviors around commercial music services (CMS), there remains a lack in understanding of users’ perceptions and value judgments underlying these behaviors. Specifically, there is more to learn about what influences and behaviors individual music users perceive as meaningful in social contexts. We used the Q methodology to explore which behaviors and influences are important to CMS users and why. We extracted two factors that explain the two different viewpoints shared by groups of music users, focusing on how they perceive the meaning and value of different social music behavior and interactions. From these findings, we then revised an existing social music coding dictionary and interaction model and offer new CMS design insights.