Understanding Musical Diversity via Online Social Media

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new measure of musical diversity using social media data and explores its relationship with socioeconomic and personal traits, providing insights into musical preferences and consumption patterns.

Contribution

It presents a novel social media-based measure of musical diversity and applies it to analyze associations with socioeconomic and personal factors.

Findings

Musical diversity correlates with socioeconomic status and personal traits.

The new measure effectively captures variations in musical tastes.

Insights extend previous survey-based studies on the Omnivore Thesis.

Abstract

Musicologists and sociologists have long been interested in patterns of music consumption and their relation to socioeconomic status. In particular, the Omnivore Thesis examines the relationship between these variables and the diversity of music a person consumes. Using data from social media users of Last.fm and Twitter, we design and evaluate a measure that reasonably captures diversity of musical tastes. We use that measure to explore associations between musical diversity and variables that capture socioeconomic status, demographics, and personal traits such as openness and degree of interest in music (into-ness). Our musical diversity measure can provide a useful means for studies of musical preferences and consumption. Also, our study of the Omnivore Thesis provides insights that extend previous survey and interview-based studies.