Journal article

Freedom of Choice: Examining Music Listening as a Function of Favorite Music Format

Steven C Brown, Amanda E Krause

PSYCHOMUSICOLOGY | AMER PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOC | Published : 2020

Abstract

With so many formats available for individuals to use to listen to music, the present research adopted a uses and gratifications approach to investigate why people prefer particular formats. Specifically, the present study considered six formats: physical, digital file, free-streaming, paid-for streaming, radio, and live music. A sample of 396 people (Mage = 34.53) completed an online survey, detailing the reasoning for their favorite format via a free-text response. Live music and digital files were the most popular formats. A thematic analysis of the uses and gratifications pertaining to each format highlighted how participants were attuned to the advantages (and disadvantages) of differen..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

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Funding Acknowledgements

TSome of the material presented in this article has been previously disseminated in presentations made at the 2017 Conference of the Australian Music & Psychology Society and the 2016 International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition, as well as a book chapter (Krause & Brown, 2018). Moreover, as noted in the manuscript, this research is part of a wider study concerning everyday music listening practices (Brown & Krause, 2017; Krause & Brown, 2019). We thank Sonja Karlsson for her assistance with interpretation of the qualitative data. The authors also would like to thank the Society for Education and Music Psychology Research for their support.