Online music recommendation platforms as representations of ontologies of musical taste
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Benjamin Krämer
Abstract
The framework of the ‘social ontology of the internet’ is applied to music recommendation platforms. Those websites provide individual suggestions of music to users, creating new dynamics of taste that are no longer based on human-to-human interaction and verbalized judgments. An exemplary analysis of three platforms shows that different conceptions of musical tastes are represented by technical systems: situational emotional preferences, a formalist aesthetics, and social proximity based on tastes. The platforms share certain assumptions about the ontology of musical entities and of course the constitutive act of recommending. We discuss how this act can be ascribed to technical systems. Theses on the platforms’ effects on the social structure of musical tastes are developed.
©2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
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- Book Reviews
- Athique, A.: Transnational audiences. Media reception on a global scale
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- Perpetrators’ strategic communication: Framing and identity building on ethno-nationalist terrorists’ websites
- The Interactive Communication Process (ICP): A model for integrating science, academia, and profession
- Framing Sálvame: Public debates on taste, quality and television in Spain
- The effects of visual isolation on the perception of scandalized politicians
- Online music recommendation platforms as representations of ontologies of musical taste
- Book Reviews
- Athique, A.: Transnational audiences. Media reception on a global scale
- Couldry, N. and Hepp, A.: The mediated construction of reality
- Smith, I. R., & Verevis, C. (Eds.): Transnational film remakes
