User Autonomy and Music Consumption on Spotify
Authors
Andersen, Simon Grøn Bøgild ; Raymond, Joel Asger
Term
4. term
Education
Publication year
2025
Submitted on
2025-01-30
Pages
56
Abstract
Denne afhandling undersøger, hvordan Spotify-brugere opfatter platformens musikanbefalinger, og hvordan disse påvirker deres autonomi og handlekraft i musikforbruget. I et digitaliseret hverdagsliv er mange afhængige af platforme, der former deres valg, ofte uden fuld indsigt i, hvordan systemerne virker. Med en techno-antropologisk tilgang, som studerer teknologier i deres sociale hverdagssammenhænge, anvender studiet kvalitative metoder som interviews og workshops. Resultaterne peger på en gennemgående bekymring: manglende gennemsigtighed i, hvordan anbefalinger bliver til. Kuraterede playlister og personaliserede funktioner gør det let at lytte og finde musik, men de styrer også brugernes valg og påvirker, hvordan ny musik opdages. Nogle brugere tager imod foreslået indhold uden større refleksion, mens andre søger at bevare kontrol ved selv at kuratere playlister eller bruge søgning. Med udgangspunkt i aktør-netværksteori, der ser mennesker, teknologier og organisationer som aktører i et netværk, beskriver vi Spotify som et obligatorisk passagepunkt i det digitale musikøkosystem. Platformen samler brugere, anbefalingsalgoritmer og kommercielle interesser og styrker sin position gennem et stort katalog og sociale delingsfunktioner. Brugerperspektiverne antyder, at synligheden af mindre kendte og nichekunstnere kan blive påvirket af, hvordan indhold prioriteres i anbefalingerne. Afhandlingen trækker også på samfundskontraktteorier for at diskutere, hvad dette betyder for brugerautonomi, fairness og moralsk handlekraft i musikforbrug. På tværs af materialet efterspørger brugere større klarhed om anbefalingsprocesser. Mere gennemsigtighed kan styrke autonomi og fremme mangfoldighed i musikopdagelse. Studiet bidrager dermed til debatten om digitale platforme ved at belyse samspillet mellem anbefalingssystemer, brugernes handlekraft og kulturelt forbrug i musikstreaming.
This thesis examines how Spotify users perceive the platform’s music recommendations and how these systems affect their autonomy and agency in music listening. In everyday digital life, people rely on platforms that shape their choices, often without fully understanding how they work. Using a Techno-Anthropological approach that studies technologies in their social, everyday contexts, the study applies qualitative methods, including interviews and workshops. A recurring concern is a lack of transparency about how recommendations are produced. Curated playlists and personalized features make listening easy and tailored, but they also steer choices and influence how new music is discovered. Some users engage passively with suggested content, while others maintain control by manually curating playlists or using search. Drawing on Actor-Network Theory, which views people, technologies, and organizations as actors in a network, we describe Spotify as an Obligatory Point of Passage in the digital music ecosystem. The platform aligns users, recommendation algorithms, and commercial interests, and it reinforces its position through a vast catalog and social sharing features. User perspectives suggest that the visibility of lesser-known and niche artists may be affected by how content is prioritized within recommendation features. The thesis also uses social contract theories to discuss implications for user autonomy, fairness, and moral agency in music consumption. Across the material, users call for greater clarity about recommendation processes. Increased transparency may strengthen autonomy and promote diversity in music discovery. The study contributes to wider debates on digital platforms by examining the relationship between recommendation systems, user agency, and cultural consumption in music streaming.
[This summary has been rewritten with the help of AI based on the project's original abstract]
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