Big data, music streaming platforms and the social dynamics of music taste

The rise of music streaming platforms, such as Spotify and Apple Music, has contributed to an explosion of new forms of digital data about music consumption practices. As the digital platforms through which consumers access and engage with recorded music and creators distribute it, they are uniquely positioned to create immense volumes of data about what and how people consume music, individually and at scale. From data about what music people search for and skip, to demographic information about who is consuming what, music streaming platforms generate data about almost every micro-interaction with music, amassing enormous databases ripe for further value-extraction.