User perspectives on critical factors for collaborative playlists

TL;DR

This study explores user perspectives on collaborative playlists, identifying key factors that influence their usefulness and areas needing improvement, to inform better design of music sharing platforms.

Contribution

It introduces a thematic analysis-based Codebook of Critical CP Factors, highlighting user priorities and gaps in current collaborative playlist implementations.

Findings

Eight critical aspects identified for CPs

Users find certain features useful but lack others

Design implications proposed for future CP platform improvements

Abstract

Collaborative playlists (CP) enable listeners to curate music together, translating long-standing social practices around music consumption into the age of streaming. Yet despite their role in connecting people through music, we lack an understanding of factors that are critical to CPs and their enjoyment. To understand what users consider important to CPs and their usage, we investigated aspects that are perceived to be most useful and lacking in today's CP implementations. We conducted a survey to collect open-ended text responses from real-world CP users. Using thematic analysis, we derived the Codebook of Critical CP Factors, which comprises eight aspects. We gained insights into which aspects are particularly useful, and which are absent and desired by current CP users. From these findings we propose design implications to inform further design of CP functionalities and platforms, and highlight potential benefits and challenges related to their adoption in current music services.