Difference in User Types of User-Generated Playlist Creation on Music Streaming Platforms

Abstract

Music streaming heavily influenced the way we listen to music. Research has shown that nowadays music is perceived mainly in the background accompanying other activities. Many streaming users therefore create playlists to have songs readily available for those different scenarios. This study aims to determine how users of those platforms create their playlists. An online survey was used to get quantitative data on the opinions of a vast amount of users, mainly in their 20s, on playlist creation. Informed by this, user tests were conducted with 8 participants to get qualitative insights into the process itself. Analysis of both methods revealed that people indeed use various different strategies to create their playlists. Based on those, four overarching user types, two sub-types and other behavioural patterns could be derived. Interpreting the characteristics of those revealed that the difference in desired level of control, song recommendation usage and song familiarity preference are important factors to be recognized. Through those findings, design implications for music streaming platforms could be given to enhance the experience and intuitiveness of the playlist creation process. Providing the user with more control while adding songs and incorporating context information into song recommendations would significantly improve this task. Further research is needed to support the connection of the user types to different personality traits and understand long-term playlist curation.