Information, Communication & Society

ISSN: 1369-118X (Print) 1468-4462 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rics20

Taste in the platform age: music streaming

services and new forms of class distinction

Jack Webster

To cite this article: Jack Webster (2019): Taste in the platform age: music streaming
services and new forms of class distinction, Information, Communication & Society, DOI:
10.1080/1369118X.2019.1622763

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2019.1622763

Published online: 28 May 2019.

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INFORMATION, COMMUNICATION & SOCIETY
https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2019.1622763

Taste in the platform age: music streaming services and new

forms of class distinction
Jack Webster
Department of Sociology, Social Policy and Criminology, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

Music streaming services, such as Spotify, have the potential to Received 27 November 2018
transform the social dynamics of music consumption in ways not Accepted 14 May 2019
previously encountered. These platforms facilitate anytime,
KEYWORDS
anywhere access to vast catalogues of licensed music at little or Bourdieu; class; consumption;
no cost, making it possible for people from across class cultural capital; music
backgrounds to affordably access music spanning hierarchies of streaming services; taste
highbrow and lowbrow. Not only this, music streaming services
are personalising the experience of consuming music. By drawing
on music recommendation technologies that extract and predict
similarities in music taste, individually and at scale, these
platforms have the potential to reinforce class divisions in music
taste at an unprecedented rate and scale. Yet, little is empirically
known about if and how music streaming services are shaping the
part that music taste and consumption play in the pursuit of class
distinction. Drawing on 42 interviews with a combination of music
streaming key informants and everyday users, this article
demonstrates that music streaming services are creating
opportunities to achieve distinction ‘on’ and ‘off’ platform. First, it
highlights how technical command over these platforms and the
practice of playlist curation represent opportunities to mobilise
technical and music expertise in the pursuit of distinction. Second,
it demonstrates that consuming music in physical formats, such as
vinyl LPs, is a way for some to achieve distinction by challenging
the speed at which music is made available by music streaming
services. This article contributes to debates about the changing
nature of the cultural assets underpinning class privilege in the
platform age.

Introduction
Music streaming services, such as Spotify and Apple Music, have the potential to disrupt
the social dynamics of music consumption. For free or in exchange for a subscription fee,
music streaming services facilitate anytime, anywhere access to vast catalogues of licensed
music at little or no cost using an Internet-enabled device, such as a smartphone (Morris &
Powers, 2015). Not only do music streaming services offer access to an abundance of
music, they are seeking to manipulate what and how people consume it. Combining the
judgements of music experts, such as music critics and radio DJs, extraordinary volumes

CONTACT Jack Webster j.webster@soton.ac.uk University of Southampton, Building 58, University Road, South-
ampton SO17 1BJ, UK
© 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
2 J. WEBSTER

of data about people’s identities and interactions, and the latest advancements in music
recommendation technologies designed to extract and predict similarities and differences
in musical preferences individually and at scale, these platforms are adapting what music is
selected and presented on an increasingly personalised basis (Hamilton, 2019; Morris &
Powers, 2015; Prey, 2016; Webster, Gibbins, Halford, & Hracs, 2016).
These radical changes to the availability of music raise some fundamental questions
about the role that cultural taste and consumption play in the pursuit of social distinction
and cultural reproduction of class inequalities. According to Pierre Bourdieu (1984), cul-
tural taste represents one of the assets – what Bourdieu (1984) conceptualises as ‘cultural
capital’ – underpinning class privilege. Taste – being able to consume the ‘right’ culture in
the ‘right’ way – not only helps individuals and groups to achieve social distinction, it has
the potential to be converted into social advantage, such as employment opportunities or
expanded social networks. Because music streaming services provide affordable access to
the history of recorded music, making it possible for almost anyone to access any music,
from classical music to rap, they have the potential to undermine the processes of exclu-
sion upon with class divisions are formed and maintained (Beer, 2013; Wright, 2015).
Meanwhile in a context where the experience of consuming music is becoming increas-
ingly personalised, the cultivation of taste has the potential to become detached from
class-related socialisation processes, such as friendship networks and the consumption
of broadcast media (Beer, 2013; Webster et al., 2016).
The recent Great British Class Survey (GBCS), a survey conducted in conjunction with
the BBC about class in structure in twenty-first-century Britain, provides important evi-
dence that suggests that engagement with new media, such as music streaming services,
has the potential to become an important source of social distinction (Savage et al.,
2013). As part of its examination of the cultural dimensions of class identities, the
GBCS found that the consumption of popular culture for its own sake, including popular
music, video games and social media, characterises the tastes of younger generations. This
stands in contrast to older generations’ commitment to highbrow culture, such as classical
music. In turn, speculation has been made as to whether these practices have the potential
to represent emerging forms of cultural capital for younger generations of privileged
groups in the UK and beyond (Friedman, Savage, Hanquinet, & Miles, 2015; Savage
et al., 2013).
However, there are limitations in recent accounts. First, the GBCS identifies that
engagement with new media is a part of the cultural tastes and practices of the young
and well-educated, yet there is limited qualitative insight into if and how platforms,
such as music streaming services, are implicated in the pursuit of social distinction.
Second, if and how platform-use functions as capital in a Bourdieusian sense (i.e., conver-
tible into social and economic opportunities) remains unclear and further research is
needed to consider the potential power of any new forms of distinction (Friedman
et al., 2015). Third, there is little empirical consideration of if and how the ways in
which music streaming services mediate access to music, such as through personalisation,
are shaping how music consumption practices are used to achieve distinction (Webster
et al., 2016).
This article begins to bridge these gaps. Drawing on 22 semi-structured interviews con-
ducted with music streaming key informants, 20 semi-structured interviews and media ‘go
alongs’ with everyday music consumers in the UK (Jørgensen, 2016), and the collection
 INFORMATION, COMMUNICATION & SOCIETY 3

and analysis of over 120 documents about music streaming services, it explores if and how
music streaming services are creating new opportunities to achieve social distinction. First,
I illustrate how playlist curation, a practice enabled and encouraged by these platforms, is a
way to mobilise technical and musical expertise in the pursuit of social distinction. Second,
I discuss how the renewed interest in consuming vinyl LPs is a way to pursue distinction
by challenging the speed at which music streaming services mediate access to music. This
article concludes by considering whether these practices have the potential to represent
cultural capital, setting an agenda for future research.
The findings presented in this article contribute to debates about emerging cultural
capital and new forms of distinction in the twenty-first century. Music is a particularly
vibrant lens for studying these issues. The music marketplace has and continues to be
at the forefront of technological and commercial changes in how cultural goods are dis-
tributed and consumed, such as the development of formats for digitally reproducing
music (e.g., the MP3) and the subsequent spread of online piracy (Hracs, 2012). Indeed
from Bourdieu (1984) to the more recent work of Mike Savage and his colleagues (Bennett
et al., 2009; Savage et al., 2013), successive generations of class analysts have relied on
music taste as a lens through which to examine the cultural dimensions of class identities
(Bennett et al., 2009). This article contributes to our understanding of if and how music
streaming services are shaping claims to class distinction, for whom opportunities to
achieve distinction are being created by these platforms, and with what consequence for
the cultural reproduction of class inequalities. In doing so, the article nuances our under-
standing of how class privilege manifests in the platform age.
This article proceeds as follows. I begin by discussing the changing relationship between
music taste, consumption and class in the twenty-first century, identifying gaps in existing
literature. Following this, I review the methods used to collect my empirical data. I then
explore how music streaming services are creating opportunities to achieve distinction
on and off platform. I conclude by setting an agenda for future research.

Taste, consumption and class in the twenty-first century

The influential work of Pierre Bourdieu (1984) demonstrated that cultural taste is shaped
by class background and because of this serves to distinguish people on the basis of social
class. At Bourdieu’s time of writing in the 1960s, a cultivated appreciation for highbrow
culture, such as classical music, distinguished the tastes of dominant classes (understood
as those with relatively high volumes of economic, social and/or cultural capital), whilst
popular culture was associated with the tastes of dominated groups (i.e., those deprived
of capital).
Not only are cultural tastes shaped by class background, they also function as what
Bourdieu (1984) describes as ‘cultural capital.’ Knowledge and practices function as cul-
tural capital in a Bourdiesian sense if they can be converted into social and economic
opportunities (e.g., converting education into a well-paid job). The convertibility of par-
ticular assets various according to different social contexts – what Bourdieu (1984)
would describe as ‘fields’ – and whether or not an asset is relationally understood to be
valuable in a given field. For instance, Thornton’s (1995) research on dance music subcul-
tures demonstrates that particular forms of musical knowledge, such as in-depth knowl-
edge of dance music and being able to dress in the ‘right’ way, function as a source of
4 J. WEBSTER

cultural capital as they can be converted into social prestige amongst fellow members of
the dance music subculture. However beyond the scene, this knowledge has limited value.
Over time, sociological accounts about how class distinction is achieved through cul-
tural taste and consumption have changed. The concept of the cultural omnivore was
introduced to describe a qualitative change in the tastes and consumption practices of pri-
vileged individuals and groups at the end of twentieth century (Peterson & Kern, 1996).
The concept suggests that what counts as ‘legitimate’ taste (i.e., taste that has the potential
to function as cultural capital, convertible into other forms of advantage) has moved away
from the exclusive consumption of highbrow culture to a pluralistic and knowing engage-
ment with cultural goods spanning hierarchies of highbrow and lowbrow (Bennett et al.,
2009; Peterson & Kern, 1996).
Cultural omnivorousness brings into question whether highbrow and lowbrow are
still valid categories for understanding how class distinction is achieved in the
twenty-first century, and whether hierarchies of value are organised along different
axes involving different combinations of cultural goods and practices. Recent studies
of class and consumption have highlighted that whilst older generations of the dominant
classes continue to express affinities for highbrow culture, the tastes of younger gener-
ations are characterised by the consumption of popular culture for its own sake (Savage
et al., 2013). Indeed, engagement with forms of new media, such as video games, social
media, and music streaming services, are identified as an important new frontier for
achieving social distinction within and between class groups (Friedman et al., 2015;
Savage et al., 2013).
Social and generational differences not only manifest through what culture people con-
sume, but also how they consume it. Savage et al. (2013) identify that younger generations
are leading a move away from the Kantian aesthetic (i.e., the distanced appreciation of cul-
ture) defining tastes of the dominant classes, as described by Bourdieu’s (1984), to a more
open and knowing expression of cultural aptitude, indicative of cultural omnivorousness
(Peterson & Kern, 1996). In turn, sociologists have speculated about whether these cultural
tastes represent emerging forms of cultural capital, helping younger generations access
social and economic opportunities (Friedman et al., 2015).

Building on existing research

Whilst the GBCS provides valuable evidence that suggests the composition of class tastes is
changing in the platform age, there are limitations in existing research. First, the GBCS
demonstrates through quantitative measures that engagement with new media is related
to class background, yet there is limited qualitative insight into how these distinctive tastes
and practices are cultivated and performed. Qualitative research is needed to better under-
stand how using music streaming services comes to be understood and accepted as legit-
imate ways of engaging with music, thereby functioning as a source of distinction.
Second, this article is underpinned by a commitment to treating technologies as more
than symbolic projections of capital enrolled in games of distinction, as is often the case in
sociological analyses of culture, class and consumption (Webster et al., 2016). Music
streaming services are understood as commercial enterprises and dynamic sociotechnical
systems that actively seek to shape what and how people engage with music in order to
satisfy their strategic aims (Langley & Leyshon, 2017; Webster et al., 2016). As I go on
 INFORMATION, COMMUNICATION & SOCIETY 5

to demonstrate, their ontological complexity has implications for how they are enrolled in
claims to class distinction.
Thirdly, additional empirical research needs to consider if and how engagement with
music streaming service contributes to the accumulation of capital. Following Bourdieu
(1984), this requires a consideration for the convertibility of these practices (i.e., whether
they can be converted into other forms of advantage, such as economic opportunities).
This avenue of enquiry is fundamental for understanding the changing nature of the cul-
tural assets underpinning class privilege in the platform age.
This article begins to address these limitations. The following section introduces music
streaming services in greater detail.

Music streaming services: a primer

Music streaming services, such as Spotify and Apple Music, have gone from a niche to
the dominant mode of music distribution. In exchange for a monthly subscription fee
of around £9.99 per month, or for free in exchange for exposure to third-party adver-
tisements, these services sell on-demand access to vast catalogues of licensed music of
using an Internet-connected device, such as a smartphone or PC. Spotify, the market
leading service in the UK, has over 180 million monthly active users worldwide,
over 80 million paying subscribers, and offers access to over 30 million songs (Sanchez,
2018).
In order to attract and engage users and differentiate from the competition, music
streaming services engage in various activities to improve the quality of the user experi-
ence (Jansson & Hracs, 2018; Morris & Powers, 2015). Primarily, these companies seek
to make it easier for people to find and engage with relevant music (Jansson & Hracs,
2018; Morris & Powers, 2015; Barna, 2017; Hamilton, 2019). These companies have
assembled teams of music editors to create and manage suites of branded playlists
organised around different themes, from relaxation to the best in new music, to make
it easier for people to find relevant music for different situations, activities and
moods (Barna, 2017). The judgements of human experts are combined with the latest
advancements in music recommendation technologies to personalise the experience of
consuming music (Hamilton, 2019; Morris, 2015; Prey, 2016; Webster et al., 2016).
Drawing on vast troves of data collected about user behaviour, including demographic
information (e.g., age, gender) and interaction data (e.g., what people listened to, skip
rates), computational techniques are employed to produce personalised recommen-
dations and playlists based on the analysis of patterns in past listening behaviour (Mor-
ris, 2015; Prey, 2016; Webster et al., 2016). In turn, the playlists and recommendations
generated by these human and computational actors are adaptively presented to individ-
ual users according to contextual factors, such as a person’s location or the day of the
week (e.g., motivation playlists on a Monday morning).
This article pays attention to these aspects of why and how music streaming services
mediate access to music as part of its examination of how these platforms are enrolled
in the pursuit of social distinction. This article is committed to treating music streaming
as more than artefacts or symbolic projections of capital; rather, they are dynamic socio-
technical systems that are actively intervening in everyday music listening experiences
(Webster et al., 2016).
6 J. WEBSTER

Methods
Phase 1: key informant interviews and document analysis
22 semi-structured interviews were conducted with key informants, ranging from major
record label executives to playlist editors and data scientists working at leading music
streaming firms. Informants were purposively sampled based on their expertise about
the music streaming marketplace. Interviews were used to better understand what
music streaming services are and interrogate the strategies used to drive user engagement.
Key informants have been anonymised.
Interviews were combined with the collection of over 120 documents, such as press
releases, media articles and white papers, retrieved from the Web. Documents were
sampled purposively based on whether they discuss growth and change in the music
streaming marketplace. The incorporation of this secondary data helped to triangulate
key findings and contextualise the research in relation to broader changes in the music
marketplace.

Phase 2: music streaming user interviews and media ‘go-alongs’

A further 20 semi-structured interviews and media ‘go alongs’ (Jørgensen, 2016) were con-
ducted with a mixed sample of music consumers from across class backgrounds in the UK
who self-identified as streaming users. My sampling did not aim to achieve statistical
representativeness. Rather, in line with my approach to class analysis, my intention was
to explore the individual experiences of a mixed group of people from different class back-
grounds to point to potential ways in which music streaming services are creating oppor-
tunities to achieve distinction, helping me to set an agenda for further research.
In order to assemble my mixed sample, a British university was used as a recruitment
site. I used occupation and education as a proxy for class background and targeted differ-
ent types of occupations found at the university (e.g., accountants and cleaners) to access
people from different class backgrounds. My sample consisted of ages ranging from early
20s to late 40s, 13 women and 7 men, 15 university-educated (minimum Bachelor’s
degree) participants, and occupations ranging from customer service advisors to IT engin-
eers. Whilst my sample does not include a wide range of ages, my sample is well-composed
for exploring differences in the music formats people of different ages grew up with (e.g.,
vinyl, CD, MP3), which contributed to my understanding of how different material objects
are implicated in the pursuit of distinction. Meanwhile, because my sample consisted of
self-identifying streaming users, I am unable to discuss the experiences of non-users or
those who are ambivalent about music streaming services. It would be insightful to explore
the perspectives of these types of consumers in future research, as it would help to explore
the contested nature of claims to distinction.
Semi-structured interview questions explored if and how the use of music streaming
services is shaped by class background and has become enrolled in the pursuit of class dis-
tinction. The media ‘go-along’ consisted of an activity that invited participants to ‘walk-
through’ how they engage with music streaming services. Participants were invited to
bring along their own music device (e.g., smartphone) and individuals were encouraged
to discuss their feelings about different aspects of their chosen service, such as the plat-
form’s attempts to personalise the user experience through individually-tailored playlists
 INFORMATION, COMMUNICATION & SOCIETY 7

and recommendations. This ‘go-along’ served as a valuable prompt and provided an

opportunity for people to show how they engage with music. The activity was guided
by open ended prompts and observational notes were taken in addition to the audio
recording.

Data analysis
Recordings were transcribed verbatim and the data was analysed using a thematic
approach. My analysis began with the deductive and inductive generation of descriptive
and analytical codes. This open coding contributed to the generation of categories
which corresponded to the themes and questions from the interview guides, literature,
annotations and reflective notes. A process of axial coding followed, where connections
between and within categories and subcategories were made. Some code and categories
‘broke down’ whilst others emerged as stronger themes which were taken forward as
the analysis developed. The final themes were constructed through an iterative process
of moving back and forth between the data, the research questions, interview guides
and literature.

Achieving class distinction ‘on’-platform

Playlist curation and ‘ordinary’ music consumption
Sociological research about ‘digital inequality’ has acknowledged that everyday access to
and use of ICTs are implicated in the reproduction of class inequalities (Emmison &
Frow, 1998; North, Snyder, & Bulfin, 2008; Selwyn, 2004). This research emphasises
that material access to digital technologies is not only important, but also how individuals
are positioned to make use of these technologies (i.e., access to cultural capital). Indeed for
Bourdieu (1984), cultural capital is both characterised by knowledge of the arts and huma-
nities and skills and knowledge related to the use of technologies. Building on this
research, I examine how playlist curation and a technical command of platforms has
become enrolled in the pursuit of social distinction and has the potential to represent
an emerging cultural capital.
Music streaming services afford people the ability to create and name their own play-
lists, or take pre-existing playlists created by professional playlist editors and add, edit or
remove tracks. These services make it possible to publicly share playlists and they allow
other users to search for and follow a given user’s playlists, enabling a followership to
be built. Some services, such as Spotify, encourage public sharing and provide advice to
their users about how they can improve the exposure of their playlists, including advice
on the size of a playlist and how regularly it should be updated (Spotify, 2015).
Playlist creation is used by my participants for whom musical expertise is an important
part of their identity to achieve distinction. For example, Elizabeth (early 20s, Administra-
tor, university-educated) describes herself as a music expert and uses her technical com-
mand of Spotify to perform and extend her knowledge of music. Elizabeth grew up
immersed in musical culture. Her father was a bluegrass musician, her mother was a clas-
sically-trained singer, and her older brother is an academic working in the field of musi-
cology. Elizabeth was introduced to the cello at a young age and she went on to study
8 J. WEBSTER

Drama at a university in the UK. Elizabeth enjoys ‘hunting around’ for new music and
giving recommendations to her friends. Elizabeth uses her technical command of Spotify
to extend her knowledge and appreciation for music, enabling her to achieve distinction by
affirming her status as a music expert. For example, upon receiving her latest ‘Discover
Weekly’ playlist from Spotify (a personalised playlist of new music, updated once a
week), Elizabeth manually creates an ‘archive’ playlist of the best songs which appear in
each week’s playlist. Elizabeth is aware that the platform is tracking her listening behaviour
and has determined through a process of reverse engineering that what she adds to her
archive playlist shapes what Discover Weekly recommendations she receives in the future.
Elizabeth takes pride in her ability to manipulate the platform in this way and uses it as a
way to enhance her musical knowledge:
What I do is, at work, every Monday, I put on the ‘Discover’ playlist and then if something
comes on that I really like, I put it into a month, so I make a separate playlist and go, this is
‘Discover July 17,’ this is ‘Discover August 17,’ so then I have each month with the best. So
then each week, the next ‘Discover’ playlist comes out, it’s even better, it keeps getting better
and better.

Whilst Elizabeth’s playlist curation practices are reflective of her cultivated appreciation
for music, other people engage with playlists in a more pragmatic fashion. For example,
Rebecca (early 40s, Administrator, GCSE-level education) is one of my working-class par-
ticipants. Her father was a plumber and her mother worked as an administrator in
between her childcare responsibilities. Neither Rebecca nor her parents attended univer-
sity. Rebecca’s musical taste displays omnivorous traits in terms of what music she con-
sumes, as she engages with a range of musical styles spanning traditional boundaries of
highbrow and lowbrow, such as electronic dance music and classical. Unlike existing
accounts of omnivorousness, which relate omnivorousness to a ‘knowing’ appropriation
of diverse cultural forms (Bennett et al., 2009; Peterson & Kern, 1996), however, Rebecca
engages with music in a more pragmatic fashion. For example, she describes dance music
as a ‘mood booster’ and classical music as a source of relaxation. This mode of consump-
tion underpins how Rebecca engages with music on Spotify. Rather than approaching
playlist curation as an opportunity to display her musical expertise, as Elizabeth does,
Rebecca uses it to organise music around the situations, activities and moods in which
she consumes it. This is evident in Rebecca’s account of her playlist curation habits pre-
sented during our ‘go-along’:
I’ve got a classical playlist. I’ve got my gym tracks. I’ve got a gym tracks folder and in there are
different playlists and different sorts of gym songs. Oh, I’ve got an easy listening or some-
thing, and then that’s got (opens the playlist on Spotify), it’s got things like Roberta Flack,
and Gladys Knight, and stuff, which is really chilled out, easy-listening, you know.

These examples highlight that people from different class backgrounds curate playlists in
different ways. For Elizabeth, playlist curation is used to perform and extend her musical
expertise, an important part of her identity, whilst Rebecca engages with playlists in
relation to the specific activities, situations and moods in which she consumes music.
Yet whilst playlist curation is used by Elizabeth to display and validate her musical exper-
tise, this does not necessarily mean these practices function as cultural capital. This is
dependent on whether an individual is able to convert playlist curation into social and
economic advantage. In the following section, I introduce additional examples to explore
 INFORMATION, COMMUNICATION & SOCIETY 9

how playlist curation is creating opportunities for people to use this practice to accumulate
economic capital and social prestige.

Playlist curators as new kinds of cultural intermediaries

Bourdieu (1984) introduced the term ‘cultural intermediaries’ to refer to the middle-
class occupations, such as cultural critics, which shape the formation of cultural hier-
archy and class taste. They are the professional taste makers and ‘vendors of symbolic
goods’ (Bourdieu, 1984, pp. 310–311), such as advertising materials, magazine
reviews, and lifestyle advice, located in the space between cultural production and
consumption. They are important actors because they create the conditions for people
from different class backgrounds to identify the goods consistent with their class
background, contributing to the formation of coherent hierarchically-organised
class tastes.
Digital technologies and the Web have challenged Bourdieu’s account about who per-
forms as a cultural intermediary (Verboord, 2014; Powers, 2015). Because social media in
principle allows any individual with the necessary equipment and skills to produce and
disseminate cultural content, the Web has opened up traditional cultural intermediary
roles to more diverse candidates, challenging the institutionalised basis of cultural inter-
mediaries’ expertise (Verboord, 2014).
The practice of playlist curation has the potential to contribute to the emergence of new
kinds of cultural intermediaries, creating opportunities for people to use playlist curation
to achieve social and economic gain. For example, music streaming services have created
employment opportunities for successful playlist curators. These companies have
assembled teams of playlist editors to create and manage suites of branded playlists,
from activity and mood-based playlists to the latest in new music. Recent high-profile
hires include the hiring of the former BBC Radio 1 DJ, Zane Lowe, by Apple Music,
and the former head of BBC Radio 1, George Ergatoudis, by Spotify (Barton, 2015; Sweney,
2015). These individuals make judgements about what music is relevant for particular situ-
ations, activities and moods, and what constitutes the ‘best’ new music to be featured in
these platforms’ most popular playlists, such as Spotify’s ‘Peaceful Piano’ and ‘Rap Caviar’
playlists. As the determinants of what music is featured in these branded playlists, these
individuals have become influential cultural intermediaries, as the comments of one of
my key informants highlights:
There’s one guy in California who is in charge of jazz on Apple Music, so he decides what
track goes into the A-lists, the B-lists and all these different playlists on Apple Music so he
is one of the biggest taste makers because his decisions can make a massive difference to a
campaign (Interview, Founder, Independent Record Label)

Alongside the professionalisation of playlist curation, music streaming services have

extended the participatory potential of the Web, creating opportunities for ordinary indi-
viduals to accumulate and convert capital (Burgess, Green, Jenkins, & Hartley, 2009; Ritzer
& Jurgenson, 2010). Playlist curation and management companies have emerged, such as
musicto (https://www.musicto.com), Playlist Pump (http://playlistpump.com), and Listd
Music (http://listdmusic.com), which seek to collaborate with ordinary people who have
developed a following on these platforms. These firms create opportunities for individ-
uals to use playlist creation to accumulate economic and symbolic capital. For example,
10 J. WEBSTER

the company, musicto.com, invites people to curate playlists on their behalf in exchange
for enhanced promotional opportunities and access to streaming and advertising
revenue.
However, opportunities to profit from playlist curation are unequally distributed. For
example, several media articles document that the individuals working as playlist editors
typically come from a background working as music journalists, bloggers and radio pro-
grammers, hired for their knowledge and appreciation for music and whether they are
embedded in live music scenes (Dredge, 2016; Shah, 2017). As such, music streaming ser-
vices have created opportunities for established cultural intermediaries to redeploy their
cultural capital and consolidate their position of privilege, rather than opening up access
to these social and economic opportunities to everyone. Indeed, it is also important to be
critical of the opportunities opened up by the playlist curation companies seeking to col-
laborate with ordinary music consumers. We need to consider who, if anyone, is able to
successfully use playlist creation to accumulate and convert capital and whether the rev-
enue and prestige-generating opportunities are significant enough to make an impact on
the quality of people’s everyday lives.
This section has demonstrated that playlist curation has become enrolled in the pursuit
of distinction, particularly for individuals for whom musical expertise is an important part
of their identity. The role of professional playlist editor and the growth of companies seek-
ing to monetise ordinary playlist creation has opened up opportunities for people to
accumulate economic capital and social prestige, although these opportunities may not
be available to all.

Achieving class distinction ‘off’-platform

At the same time that music streaming services have become one of the dominant modes
of music distribution and consumption, the consumption of music in physical formats,
most notably vinyl LPs, has seen a resurgence in recent years (Bartmanski & Woodward,
2015; Hracs & Jansson, 2017; Magaudda, 2011). Globally between 2016 and 2017, vinyl
sales grew by 22.3%, accounting for 3.7% of the total recorded music market, highlighting
a growing demand for music in physical formats (International Federation of the Phono-
graphic Industry, 2018). This growth has been complimented by popular events, such as
the worldwide ‘Record Store Day,’ as well as renewed support from large retailers, such as
supermarkets (Ellis-Peterson, 2017).
In this section, I explore how the vinyl revival has created opportunities for individuals
with high levels of economic and cultural capital to achieve distinction. I demonstrate how
the consumption music in physical formats is shaped by class, gender and generational
differences.

Owning vinyl and the mobilisation of economic capital

All of my participants agreed that a key affordance of music streaming services is the
affordable access to music they provide. Many of the leading music streaming services,
including Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal and Deezer, offer access to music for free or in
exchange for a monthly subscription fee of around £9.99, equivalent to an album per
month. Overcoming the economic constraints of accessing large volumes of music has
 INFORMATION, COMMUNICATION & SOCIETY 11

radically expanded choice. As Claire (early 20s, Relationship Manager, university-edu-

cated) put it:
… to have a service where I pay a set amount every month and I can have access to everything
means that my taste has grown, whereas if I didn’t have access to something like this, and I
could only pay £10 for one album every month, which I probably wouldn’t do, then my tastes
would be very limited.

Unlike the ad-supported and subscription-based business models of music streaming

companies, which offer anytime, anywhere access to vast catalogues of music at little or
no cost, owning new vinyl releases is more expensive. In the UK, a new vinyl release
can cost upwards of £25, which is equivalent to almost three months of a premium Spotify
or Apple Music subscription (Sanchez, 2018). There are also ‘start-up’ costs associated
with vinyl music consumption, such as the cost of the equipment (e.g., turntable, amplifier
and speakers) needed to listen to music in this way. Expensive vinyl releases restrict access
to individuals with the disposable income needed to consume music in this way. As such,
the high financial cost of owning vinyl creates opportunities to achieve social distinction
through the mobilisation of economic capital.
Indeed, the ways in which new vinyl releases are produced and marketed adds to their
potential to function as a source of distinction. Recordings are often sold as ‘limited edi-
tion’ releases. These products often feature hand-painted artwork, photographs, hand-
written thank you cards and individually-numbered copies, which are sold at a premium
to loyal fans (Hracs, Jakob, & Hauge, 2013). Limited edition releases help artists to stand
out from the crowd and improve profit-margins by exploiting the desires of consumers to
signal their status and identity through the consumption of unique products (Hracs et al.,
2013; Shipman, 2004). The exclusive nature of these goods reintroduces scarcity. Anyone
with a subscription can access music via music streaming services, but the ownership of
limited-edition physical recordings is restricted to those ‘in the know’ and those who
are able and willing to a pay premium to be in a select group of co-consumers. As my
key informant’s comments illustrate:
Compare to say 20 years ago, when vinyl releases were fairly cheap and shoddy looking, now,
you know, they are incredibly well packaged, premium quality vinyl, and card, and inserts,
images, and sleeves, it’s really become almost like collecting art. (Interview, Executive,
Music Industry Body 2)

Consuming Vinyl and the Manipulation of Time

In addition to owning music on vinyl, this section discusses how the practice of listen-
ing to music on vinyl has the potential to become enrolled in the pursuit of class distinc-
tion, specifically through the manipulation of time.
According to Bourdieu (1984), the cultural capital possessed by privileged individuals
and groups is characterised by an ‘aesthetic’ disposition and a distanced appreciation of
culture. It is a way of engaging with cultural goods which demands time and sustained
engagement to acquire, thereby restricting access to those who can afford to cultivate
this disposition, such as those who spend extended periods of time in education. Indeed
as Veblen (1912) identified, the conspicuous use of time is a way for the dominant classes
to communicate their status and position of privilege. Having access to disposable time to
spend on leisure pursuits which have no immediate material gain is a way for the
12 J. WEBSTER

dominant classes to display their wealth and privilege by conveying to others that they can
afford to be unproductive.
Music streaming services have the potential to undermine the part that the manipu-
lation of time plays in the pursuit of distinction. This because these platforms are compres-
sing the time available for people to consume music in a cultivated and ‘distanced’
manner, as Bourdieu (1984) understood it. Music streaming services ‘trap’ (Seaver,
2018) consumers in what Arditi (2018) describes as an unending cycle of consumption.
Music streaming services’ ad-supported and subscription-based business models are
dependent upon driving user engagement to succeed (Arditi, 2018; Morris & Powers,
2015). This is because engagement ensures that people continue to pay for subscriptions
and/or expose themselves to third-party advertisements.
However, the imperative to drive user engagement has implications for the rate at
which music is made available to individual consumers (Arditi, 2018). Music streaming
services are continually adapting what and how music is made available, from the adaption
of the contents of personalised playlists to the re-organisation of the ‘homepage’ according
to contextual factors, such as the time of the day. The platform continuously monitors
changes in user behaviour to ensure that the contents of playlists and recommendations
are up-to-date with changes in consumer behaviour. As one key informant put it: ‘ …
you collect the data continuously and you continuously learn’ (Interview, Computer
Scientist).
The ongoing adaptation of what music is selected and presented to individuals shapes
what and how my participants engage with music. On the one hand, some of my partici-
pants were happy about having new music routinely presented to them by their music
streaming service because it complimented their omnivorous orientation to music. For
example, Christian (early 20s, Arts Administrator, university-educated) discusses how
Spotify’s personalised playlists, such as its ‘Discover Weekly’ playlist, expand his musical
horizons, making him ‘more inquisitive’ and ‘thirsty to discover more music,’ as he puts it:
‘If that service wasn’t there, or if it was literally just a search box, or whatever, you wouldn’t
be as inquisitive. You’d maybe search for stuff you like, but you wouldn’t go out as far to
discover new music.’
On the other hand, however, the ongoing adaptation of music has the potential to
undermine opportunities to achieve distinction through the manipulation of time. This
is because the curatorial strategies used to drive user engagement are compressing the
time available to appreciate music as an end in of itself, in a manner described by Bourdieu
(1984). For example, Jamie (early 20s, Social Media Marketeer, university-educated)
prides himself on having good music taste and he assertively distances himself from
what he describes as ‘mainstream’ pop music on account of it being ‘bland’ and ‘predict-
able.’ His confidence making judgements about music taste extends to his use of music
streaming. For example, in a similar fashion to Elizabeth, playlist curation is an intellectual
exercise and a way for him to display his musical expertise, as he puts it: ‘I take a lot of
pride in finding the right situation for a playlist and then putting it on and seeing how
people react to it.’ However, using Spotify is making it more challenging for him to
take his time in appreciating the music made available to him by Spotify. As he explains:
‘Because there’s so much new stuff I will very rarely really take the time to listen to a whole
album and really get into it and explore it to the same level – it’s like, no, there’s always
something new I can go and jump to.’
 INFORMATION, COMMUNICATION & SOCIETY 13

The act of listening to music on vinyl is used by some of my participants to recreate the
conditions in which time can be used to achieve distinction. For example, consuming music
on vinyl is used by Jamie as a way to slow down the experience of consuming music and re
(create) the conditions to appreciate it for its own sake. Jamie states: ‘With vinyl it’s, I bought
this album because I specifically wanted to own this album […] I’m going to sit down and
listen to this one album and focus on one single thing for a little while.’ This quote illustrates
that how Jamie consumes vinyl is distinct from how he listens to music on Spotify. Instead,
consuming vinyl is a slower and more deliberate practice for Jamie where time is taken to ‘sit
down’ and listen to something, free from other distractions. Jamie manipulates time to
achieve distinction by challenging the accelerated rate at which music is made available
to him in the platform age. Greg (late 20s, Administrator, university-educated) describes
the act of vinyl music consumption in a similar fashion: ‘I have the vinyl at home for
nice listening, sitting on a Saturday afternoon chilling and listening to music.’
However, the renewed interest in consuming music on vinyl is not shared by all of my
participants. In addition to the symbolic value of vinyl being tied to particular genres and
subcultures, such as the elevated status of ‘white label’ vinyl releases in the dance music
subculture (Thornton, 1995), interviews exposed generational and gendered differences
in attitudes towards vinyl. The contrasting perspectives of Tracy (late 40s, Education Out-
reach Manager, university-educated) and Christian represent an inversion in the music
formats valued by different age groups, highlighting the potential for the vinyl revival
to distinguish different generations of consumers. For Tracy, the format holds little sym-
bolic value. Tracy is more interested in the novelty of having access to vast catalogues of
music, rather than returning to the impracticalities of consuming music on vinyl, as she
puts it: ‘(On Spotify) you can listen to music anywhere, we never had that before, I
don’t miss, there is nothing good about vinyl, my son loves vinyl, it’s heavy, they break,
they wear out, they crackle.’ In contrast, Christian places greater emphasis on the owner-
ship of music in physical formats. Vinyl is upheld as being superior to consuming music
via music streaming services because it invokes a greater sense of cultural ownership, as his
comments illustrate: ‘Owning the vinyl, it’s a lot more special and you do have a lot more
pride in owning it almost – people do still say, oh, I’ve got that on vinyl, you don’t say, oh,
I’ve got that on Spotify.’
Furthermore, record collecting and spaces of music consumption, such as the record
store, are traditionally seen as exclusionary masculine domains (Bartmanski & Woodward,
2015; Shuker, 2004; Straw, 1997). Straw (1997) describes record collections as the material
goods with which homosocial interactions take place. The shared knowledges of record col-
lectors function as a source of status amongst men, preserving the homosocial nature of
record collecting, but in doing so restricts access to women and the social and economic
opportunities such knowledges may create (Straw, 1997). The examples presented here
about the vinyl revival come from some of my male participants (specifically, Jamie, Greg
and Christian), highlighting the persistence of gendered divisions in vinyl music consump-
tion. Indeed, one of my female participants, Deborah (Librarian, early 40s, university-edu-
cated), dismisses vinyl music consumption on the basis of gender, with her comments
reproducing the stereotype of the male record collector as ‘nerd’ or ‘obsessive compulsive’
(Shuker, 2004), as she puts it: ‘That’s a boy thing. I’ve always said, what’s the difference
between train spotters, bird spotters, and music lovers, not an awful not.’
14 J. WEBSTER

Concluding discussion
This article has explored how music streaming services are contributing to the emergence
of new forms of distinction in the platform age. First, I highlighted that the practice of
playlist curation has created opportunities to achieve distinction for both established cul-
tural intermediaries and ordinary music consumers. Second, I demonstrated that owning
and listening to music on vinyl is a way to mobilise economic capital and manipulate time
to achieve distinction.
Whilst these findings nuance our understanding of how music streaming services are
shaping the part that music taste plays in the pursuit of social distinction, further research
is needed to more fully interrogate if and how the practices documented here represent
emerging cultural capital. This question is integral for understanding whether music
streaming services are implicated in the cultural reproduction of class inequalities. Follow-
ing Bourdieu’s (1984) lead, this requires us to closely consider whether practices, such as
playlist curation, are convertible into social and economic opportunities. This article
demonstrated that the practice of playlist curation has created opportunities for already
established cultural intermediaries, such as music critics and radio DJs, to convert musical
expertise into economic opportunities and social prestige. Yet whilst the stories of Eliza-
beth and Jamie highlighted that playlist curation and the vinyl revival have become impli-
cated in the pursuit of distinction for ordinary music consumers, further empirical
research is needed to consider whether these everyday music consumption practices
have opened up opportunities to achieve social and economic gain, whether amongst
peers or in the wider musical economy.
Indeed given that access to music is no longer constrained by economic capital, as music
streaming services offer free access to vast catalogues of music, or bound to socially regu-
lated spaces, such as the record store, as it is possible to stream music anytime, anywhere
using an Internet-connected device, such as a smartphone, future research might also con-
sider whether these platforms are undermining social divisions in music taste. In principle,
music streaming services create the conditions for people to engage with music that they
might otherwise have felt excluded from on the basis of having a different class background,
gender, sexuality, ethnicity, or age to what is traditionally associated with particular musical
genres, scenes and subcultures. By making it harder to maintain social divisions in music
taste, music streaming platforms have the potential to undermine the part that music
taste plays in the reproduction of class inequalities in ways not previously encountered.

Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Prof. Susan Halford, Dr Brian J. Hracs and Dr Nicholas Gibbins for their vital
contribution to the development of this research.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor
Jack Webster is a PhD graduate in the interdisciplinary field of Web Science and is engaged in social
scientific research about the cultural dimensions of class inequalities in the digital age.
 INFORMATION, COMMUNICATION & SOCIETY 15

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