Anja Nylund Hagen | University of Oslo (original) (raw)
Papers by Anja Nylund Hagen
Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 2016
Music-streaming services embed social features that enable users to connect to one another and us... more Music-streaming services embed social features that enable users to connect to one another and use music as social objects. This article examines how these features are experienced within negotiations of music as personal and social through the acts of sharing music and of following others. The analysis relies on 23 focus-group interviews with 124 Spotify and/or Tidal users and a mixed-method study including music-diary self-reports, online observation and interviews with 12 heavy users. Our findings suggest that users incorporate social awareness in non-sharing, selective-sharing and all-sharing approaches with strong, weak and absent ties. These ties are characterized by different configurations of social and music homophily. Negotiations of music as personal and social shape how music-streaming services are experienced.
Popular Music and Society
Digital ambivalens. Norsk musikk i internasjonale markeder. Hagen, Heian, Jacobsen, Kleppe. , 2020
Co-authors: Mari Torvik Heian, Roy Jacobsen, Bård Kleppe This report provides a descriptive a... more Co-authors: Mari Torvik Heian, Roy Jacobsen, Bård Kleppe
This report provides a descriptive analysis of the Norwegian music industry before the corona pandemic, about 10 years after music streaming services became mainstream in professional distribution of recorded music. The results are based on the survey Norwe- gian music in international markets, conducted as part of the research project Music on Demand: Economy and Copyright in a digitized cultural sector (Department of Musi- cology, University of Oslo). The survey received answers from 555 respondents, including creators and performers of Norwegian music, as well as actors in record companies, management, music publishing, booking and more. Through analyses of how these in- dustry actors operate professionally towards global markets and use diverse types of media in their work, the survey confirms that the digitization of the music industry has been important for global reach, and facilitated new types of music export along the way. While an almost unified Norwegian music industry recognizes the importance of social media and music streaming services for global distribution and dissemination, the report also documents that the work with music through these platforms is happening with ambiguity and conflicting experiences. The industry is hit by digital ambivalence.
The variations are big in how opportunities and challenges are experienced across the actors. We find distinctions in how musicians and industry actors in the rhythmic/popu- lar music field versus the classical music field are affected by the digital ambivalence, with further consequences for their international approaches. Actors in the classical field are, very simplified, less dependent on digital media platforms, and hence their work continue more concentrated in fewer markets with concerts and musical performances as their main tasks. Actors in the rhythmic field are, on the opposite side, more digitally dependent (and also more commercially rigged per se), which push them to try to stretch out their global potential, in more activities and more media outlets.
Regardless of genre, our results find that the music industry actors experience several dilemmas in their professional realities. They have become dependent of using digital platforms in their work, despite they also recognize experiences of powerlessness, un- predictability, mistrust and too little competency and capacity in their ability to deal with the platforms in question.
An interesting distinction is found in how creating and performing artists compared to actors working as professional intermediaries, are experiencing the digital ambivalence. The intermediaries are representing the professional knowledge and tailored skills that are needed when Norwegian music is going abroad. The work of the intermediaries in- volves more expertise related to copyright, finance, digital media, diverse markets and more. Their work also includes more activities, in more countries, in collaboration with more professional partners. They use data from digital platforms to a greater extent, they are more negotiable, they know more about other industry partners, and are more successful with the applications they write. The intermediaries (and those who collabo- rate with intermediaries) are therefore experiencing the digital realm of the music indus- try with less unpredictability and more optimism. Put differently, while the report con- firms the idea of a connection between digitization and globalization, the idea of a connection between digitization and democratization (more equal chances for all) is being challenged.
The report depicts a great deal of industry slide in how Norwegian music companies are organized. Both intermediaries and artists combine strategic and administrative tasks as part of their professional music businesses. Core tasks are performed in both new and traditional ways, often offered as services by actors in various roles. This creates new opportunities, also for small businesses and independent artists. Nevertheless, these actors, often without international networks, teams, resources and capacity in general, of- ten suffer the most in digital ambivalence when they are facing of the complex global, music market with a lack of professionality.
In general, there is room for more professionalization in the Norwegian music industry. Both in terms of how digital media can be better exploited, and in terms of how the industry needs more competency and specialization among the professional players. Some intermediaries, such as music publishers, have a huge potential for development, both in terms of how they work and in terms of how they can provide knowledge to other indus- try actors about their work.
Interestingly, the digital ambivalence appearing in the music industry today seems to sum up two conflicting depictions of what it has meant for the Norwegian industry that once were regarded as digital pioneers in using music streaming services professionally. Here, several are claiming that being early with music streaming was significant for the global reach and knowledge about Norwegian music, while others are maintaining nega- tive perspectives of being the guinea pigs in a global and platform centered music industry.
Overall, a majority in the Norwegian music industry considers that key aspects of power, e.g. of gatekeeping and defining aesthetic trends, today have moved away from the industry players, to the hands of the global technology giants that are controlling the platform industry. This also means that the economic realm of the Norwegian music market has changed. In a platform centered music industry, the Norwegian market is too small in and of itself when everyone is competing via the same global platforms, with the total global music repertoire included. This forces the professional industry players out and about, both globally and digitally. The need for public funding related to work with music export is the same for all, however, and the tasks of writing applications for economic support is a natural part of working with music in Norway.
In conclusion, the experiences of digital ambivalence we have presented in the report, can be transformed into a stronger starting point for increased Norwegian music export, if the level of professionalization and competence related to a global and platform cen- tered music industry is strengthened in line with the further market developments.
The report is written in Norwegian.
Popular Communication, 2019
Music streaming enables the tracking of listening behavior in more detail than any previous music... more Music streaming enables the tracking of listening behavior in more detail than any previous music-distribution format. While it is well known that streaming services collect troves of data, little is known about how stakeholders, including managers or label executives, make metric-based decisions and how they understand the impact of algorithms. The article uses anonymized interviews with music industry professionals, exploring how they use metrics in streaming services and examining their decision-making processes. The analysis concludes that they rely on a growing volume of data when making decisions about what to promote, and how. Nevertheless, most of the stakeholders focused on fairly simple metrics, such as salient spikes that were noticeable “at a glance.” When discussing these !ndings, we draw attention to the reinforcing feedback loops between metrics, data-based decisions and algorithms, questioning whether data!cation acts to intensify trending events and di"usion of new music.
Streaming services have become a key player in the cultural industries in sharing media content w... more Streaming services have become a key player in the cultural industries in sharing media content with audiences. This chapter addresses how on-demand music-streaming services, the world's most popular format for the distribution of recorded music, have driven new professional music industry practices that are affected by, and affect in turn, the ways in which music communicates. Based on insights from two larger projects focused upon the digitization of the music industry and empirical material from interviews with Norwegian popular music managers, this chapter explores the work and the strategy behind contemporary music distribution in the context of streaming-service logics. By addressing how the streaming format disrupts the "audience-media engine" (Wikström 2013) in ways that radically impact music's media presence audience reach, audience approval, and audience action, the chapter identifies new dynamics in the relationship between listeners and music. It then analyzes the ways in which these dynamics afford yet other distribution practices in the music industry, according to two communication patterns. These patterns have particular purposes and methods but share an alignment with the logics of distributed communication, either within or outside of the streaming services, where the struggle for audience attention is paramount. The chapter concludes with a discussion of streaming's impact upon the negotiation of new practices in the music industry derived from the abundance and intangibility of those services, as well as their multiple options for music consumption. The chapter explains how the communication adapted to the streaming paradigm is characterized by content circulation among the layers and fragments of global networks and multiple platforms, linking artists, fans, music, and the industry in new, less predictable ways. The work of communication management hence grows in importance in a streaming-dominated music industry that might also be characterized as a communication industry in its own right.
Hagen offers an analysis of uses of music streaming services, and discusses how such services par... more Hagen offers an analysis of uses of music streaming services, and discusses how such services participate in shaping individual experiences and acquire meaning through how the services are embedded in everyday life. Focusing on the services’ affordances, the chapter acknowledges the interactions arising within each moment of streaming, including the online streaming applications, the person, the music and the context. ‘Music Streaming the Everyday Life’ demonstrates that individual music streaming experiences arise immediately and with a taken-for-granted attitude that enhances music’s role in people’s daily life. The study also offers a productive methodological model for exploring online (listening) habits that stand to benefit from immediate sampling, as it produces a fleeting, contextual understanding of people’s individual everyday experiences.
The collection "Networked Music Cultures: Contemporary Approaches, Emerging Issues" presents a range of essays on contemporary music distribution and consumption patterns and practices. The contributors to the collection use a variety of theoretical and methodological approaches, discussing the consequences and effects of the digital distribution of music as it is manifested in specific cultural contexts.
Music-streaming services embed social features that enable users to connect to one another and us... more Music-streaming services embed social features that enable users to connect to one another and use music as social objects. This paper examines how these features are experienced within negotiations of music as personal and social through the acts of sharing music and of following others. The analysis relies on 23 focus-group interviews with 124 Spotify or/and Tidal users, and a mixed-method study including music-diary self-reports, online observation, and interviews with 12 heavy users. Our findings suggest that users incorporate social awareness in non-sharing, selective-sharing, and all-sharing approaches with strong, weak, and absent ties. These ties are characterized by different configurations of social and music homophily. Negotiations of music as personal and social shape how music-streaming services are experienced.
In Norway music-streaming services have become mainstream in everyday music listening. This paper... more In Norway music-streaming services have become mainstream in everyday music listening. This paper examines how 12 heavy streaming users make sense of their experiences with Spotify and WiMP Music (now Tidal). The analysis relies on a mixed-method qualitative study, combining music-diary self-reports, online observation of streaming accounts, Facebook and last.fm scrobble-logs, and in-depth interviews. By drawing on existing metaphors of Internet experiences we demonstrate that music-streaming services can make sense as tools, places, and ways of being. Music streaming as lifeworld mediation is discussed as a fourth framework for understanding online music experiences, particularly those arising from mobile and ubiquitous characteristics of contemporary Internet technology.
Popular Music and Society, Mar 10, 2015
Music streaming services encompass features that enable the organization of music into playlists.... more Music streaming services encompass features that enable the organization of music into playlists. This article inquires how users describe and make sense of practices and experiences of creating, curating, maintaining, and using personal playlists. The analysis relies on a mixed-method study, including music-diary self-reports, online observations, and in-depth interviews with 12 heavy users of Spotify or/and WiMP Music. The findings suggest heterogeneous management of static and dynamic playlists based on structural and contextual schemes of aggregating music. User control motivates different playlist practices that demonstrate new ways of collecting music via streaming services but also derive from pre-digital collecting.
Please contact me for the full version of the article!
PhD Dissertation by Anja Nylund Hagen
Dissertation: This study is among the first to be explicitly concerned with music-streaming servi... more Dissertation: This study is among the first to be explicitly concerned with music-streaming services from a qualitative user perspective. It sheds light on how music in general, and streaming technology in particular, is perceived, made sense of, experienced and practiced in the context of the individual streaming user’s everyday life. Its research perspective is inspired by sociological phenomenology, starting with Alfred Schutz’s action-oriented approach to understanding intersubjective meaningful experience. This perspective informs both the methodological model and the theoretical framework of the study, which is otherwise interdisciplinary and eclectic.
The research was conducted in Norway, which currently boasts a globally pioneering streaming market. The study relies on a mixed-methods design using twelve heavy music-streaming users (ranging from seventeen to sixty years old) as informants. I began by devoting two months to sampling users’ self-reported practices and experiences with music-streaming services, combined with online observation and logging of all streamed tracks during this period. I followed up with individual in-depth interviews that were conducted while looking at the personal streaming-service interfaces together with the informants. This design is original to the dissertation and intended to make immediate experience sampling convenient for the informant. It is therefore also relevant for grasping everyday experiences of a taken-for-granted nature that arise in the context of mobile media and the ubiquitous Internet.
I develop my arguments through a discussion that draws on theoretical frameworks that fundamentally revolve around notions of human action, which is also a focus of my analyses (via user practices and experiences). The principal study finding involves the extent of the role that music has assumed in daily life as a result of streaming services. Streaming-related musical meaning is found to be intensely self-referential and personal, and streaming presents itself as a malleable lifeworld resource. I also argue that music-streaming services afford involvements in diverse modes of experience and practice that are realised through the role and impact of these services in everyday life, as demonstrated by the micro-dynamics that follow upon the act of streaming among individuals, the technology, the music and the context. The dissertation’s overall structure is divided in two: (1) the covering paper that will survey the research project as a whole, and (2) four articles written over the three-year course of the project.
Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 2016
Music-streaming services embed social features that enable users to connect to one another and us... more Music-streaming services embed social features that enable users to connect to one another and use music as social objects. This article examines how these features are experienced within negotiations of music as personal and social through the acts of sharing music and of following others. The analysis relies on 23 focus-group interviews with 124 Spotify and/or Tidal users and a mixed-method study including music-diary self-reports, online observation and interviews with 12 heavy users. Our findings suggest that users incorporate social awareness in non-sharing, selective-sharing and all-sharing approaches with strong, weak and absent ties. These ties are characterized by different configurations of social and music homophily. Negotiations of music as personal and social shape how music-streaming services are experienced.
Popular Music and Society
Digital ambivalens. Norsk musikk i internasjonale markeder. Hagen, Heian, Jacobsen, Kleppe. , 2020
Co-authors: Mari Torvik Heian, Roy Jacobsen, Bård Kleppe This report provides a descriptive a... more Co-authors: Mari Torvik Heian, Roy Jacobsen, Bård Kleppe
This report provides a descriptive analysis of the Norwegian music industry before the corona pandemic, about 10 years after music streaming services became mainstream in professional distribution of recorded music. The results are based on the survey Norwe- gian music in international markets, conducted as part of the research project Music on Demand: Economy and Copyright in a digitized cultural sector (Department of Musi- cology, University of Oslo). The survey received answers from 555 respondents, including creators and performers of Norwegian music, as well as actors in record companies, management, music publishing, booking and more. Through analyses of how these in- dustry actors operate professionally towards global markets and use diverse types of media in their work, the survey confirms that the digitization of the music industry has been important for global reach, and facilitated new types of music export along the way. While an almost unified Norwegian music industry recognizes the importance of social media and music streaming services for global distribution and dissemination, the report also documents that the work with music through these platforms is happening with ambiguity and conflicting experiences. The industry is hit by digital ambivalence.
The variations are big in how opportunities and challenges are experienced across the actors. We find distinctions in how musicians and industry actors in the rhythmic/popu- lar music field versus the classical music field are affected by the digital ambivalence, with further consequences for their international approaches. Actors in the classical field are, very simplified, less dependent on digital media platforms, and hence their work continue more concentrated in fewer markets with concerts and musical performances as their main tasks. Actors in the rhythmic field are, on the opposite side, more digitally dependent (and also more commercially rigged per se), which push them to try to stretch out their global potential, in more activities and more media outlets.
Regardless of genre, our results find that the music industry actors experience several dilemmas in their professional realities. They have become dependent of using digital platforms in their work, despite they also recognize experiences of powerlessness, un- predictability, mistrust and too little competency and capacity in their ability to deal with the platforms in question.
An interesting distinction is found in how creating and performing artists compared to actors working as professional intermediaries, are experiencing the digital ambivalence. The intermediaries are representing the professional knowledge and tailored skills that are needed when Norwegian music is going abroad. The work of the intermediaries in- volves more expertise related to copyright, finance, digital media, diverse markets and more. Their work also includes more activities, in more countries, in collaboration with more professional partners. They use data from digital platforms to a greater extent, they are more negotiable, they know more about other industry partners, and are more successful with the applications they write. The intermediaries (and those who collabo- rate with intermediaries) are therefore experiencing the digital realm of the music indus- try with less unpredictability and more optimism. Put differently, while the report con- firms the idea of a connection between digitization and globalization, the idea of a connection between digitization and democratization (more equal chances for all) is being challenged.
The report depicts a great deal of industry slide in how Norwegian music companies are organized. Both intermediaries and artists combine strategic and administrative tasks as part of their professional music businesses. Core tasks are performed in both new and traditional ways, often offered as services by actors in various roles. This creates new opportunities, also for small businesses and independent artists. Nevertheless, these actors, often without international networks, teams, resources and capacity in general, of- ten suffer the most in digital ambivalence when they are facing of the complex global, music market with a lack of professionality.
In general, there is room for more professionalization in the Norwegian music industry. Both in terms of how digital media can be better exploited, and in terms of how the industry needs more competency and specialization among the professional players. Some intermediaries, such as music publishers, have a huge potential for development, both in terms of how they work and in terms of how they can provide knowledge to other indus- try actors about their work.
Interestingly, the digital ambivalence appearing in the music industry today seems to sum up two conflicting depictions of what it has meant for the Norwegian industry that once were regarded as digital pioneers in using music streaming services professionally. Here, several are claiming that being early with music streaming was significant for the global reach and knowledge about Norwegian music, while others are maintaining nega- tive perspectives of being the guinea pigs in a global and platform centered music industry.
Overall, a majority in the Norwegian music industry considers that key aspects of power, e.g. of gatekeeping and defining aesthetic trends, today have moved away from the industry players, to the hands of the global technology giants that are controlling the platform industry. This also means that the economic realm of the Norwegian music market has changed. In a platform centered music industry, the Norwegian market is too small in and of itself when everyone is competing via the same global platforms, with the total global music repertoire included. This forces the professional industry players out and about, both globally and digitally. The need for public funding related to work with music export is the same for all, however, and the tasks of writing applications for economic support is a natural part of working with music in Norway.
In conclusion, the experiences of digital ambivalence we have presented in the report, can be transformed into a stronger starting point for increased Norwegian music export, if the level of professionalization and competence related to a global and platform cen- tered music industry is strengthened in line with the further market developments.
The report is written in Norwegian.
Popular Communication, 2019
Music streaming enables the tracking of listening behavior in more detail than any previous music... more Music streaming enables the tracking of listening behavior in more detail than any previous music-distribution format. While it is well known that streaming services collect troves of data, little is known about how stakeholders, including managers or label executives, make metric-based decisions and how they understand the impact of algorithms. The article uses anonymized interviews with music industry professionals, exploring how they use metrics in streaming services and examining their decision-making processes. The analysis concludes that they rely on a growing volume of data when making decisions about what to promote, and how. Nevertheless, most of the stakeholders focused on fairly simple metrics, such as salient spikes that were noticeable “at a glance.” When discussing these !ndings, we draw attention to the reinforcing feedback loops between metrics, data-based decisions and algorithms, questioning whether data!cation acts to intensify trending events and di"usion of new music.
Streaming services have become a key player in the cultural industries in sharing media content w... more Streaming services have become a key player in the cultural industries in sharing media content with audiences. This chapter addresses how on-demand music-streaming services, the world's most popular format for the distribution of recorded music, have driven new professional music industry practices that are affected by, and affect in turn, the ways in which music communicates. Based on insights from two larger projects focused upon the digitization of the music industry and empirical material from interviews with Norwegian popular music managers, this chapter explores the work and the strategy behind contemporary music distribution in the context of streaming-service logics. By addressing how the streaming format disrupts the "audience-media engine" (Wikström 2013) in ways that radically impact music's media presence audience reach, audience approval, and audience action, the chapter identifies new dynamics in the relationship between listeners and music. It then analyzes the ways in which these dynamics afford yet other distribution practices in the music industry, according to two communication patterns. These patterns have particular purposes and methods but share an alignment with the logics of distributed communication, either within or outside of the streaming services, where the struggle for audience attention is paramount. The chapter concludes with a discussion of streaming's impact upon the negotiation of new practices in the music industry derived from the abundance and intangibility of those services, as well as their multiple options for music consumption. The chapter explains how the communication adapted to the streaming paradigm is characterized by content circulation among the layers and fragments of global networks and multiple platforms, linking artists, fans, music, and the industry in new, less predictable ways. The work of communication management hence grows in importance in a streaming-dominated music industry that might also be characterized as a communication industry in its own right.
Hagen offers an analysis of uses of music streaming services, and discusses how such services par... more Hagen offers an analysis of uses of music streaming services, and discusses how such services participate in shaping individual experiences and acquire meaning through how the services are embedded in everyday life. Focusing on the services’ affordances, the chapter acknowledges the interactions arising within each moment of streaming, including the online streaming applications, the person, the music and the context. ‘Music Streaming the Everyday Life’ demonstrates that individual music streaming experiences arise immediately and with a taken-for-granted attitude that enhances music’s role in people’s daily life. The study also offers a productive methodological model for exploring online (listening) habits that stand to benefit from immediate sampling, as it produces a fleeting, contextual understanding of people’s individual everyday experiences.
The collection "Networked Music Cultures: Contemporary Approaches, Emerging Issues" presents a range of essays on contemporary music distribution and consumption patterns and practices. The contributors to the collection use a variety of theoretical and methodological approaches, discussing the consequences and effects of the digital distribution of music as it is manifested in specific cultural contexts.
Music-streaming services embed social features that enable users to connect to one another and us... more Music-streaming services embed social features that enable users to connect to one another and use music as social objects. This paper examines how these features are experienced within negotiations of music as personal and social through the acts of sharing music and of following others. The analysis relies on 23 focus-group interviews with 124 Spotify or/and Tidal users, and a mixed-method study including music-diary self-reports, online observation, and interviews with 12 heavy users. Our findings suggest that users incorporate social awareness in non-sharing, selective-sharing, and all-sharing approaches with strong, weak, and absent ties. These ties are characterized by different configurations of social and music homophily. Negotiations of music as personal and social shape how music-streaming services are experienced.
In Norway music-streaming services have become mainstream in everyday music listening. This paper... more In Norway music-streaming services have become mainstream in everyday music listening. This paper examines how 12 heavy streaming users make sense of their experiences with Spotify and WiMP Music (now Tidal). The analysis relies on a mixed-method qualitative study, combining music-diary self-reports, online observation of streaming accounts, Facebook and last.fm scrobble-logs, and in-depth interviews. By drawing on existing metaphors of Internet experiences we demonstrate that music-streaming services can make sense as tools, places, and ways of being. Music streaming as lifeworld mediation is discussed as a fourth framework for understanding online music experiences, particularly those arising from mobile and ubiquitous characteristics of contemporary Internet technology.
Popular Music and Society, Mar 10, 2015
Music streaming services encompass features that enable the organization of music into playlists.... more Music streaming services encompass features that enable the organization of music into playlists. This article inquires how users describe and make sense of practices and experiences of creating, curating, maintaining, and using personal playlists. The analysis relies on a mixed-method study, including music-diary self-reports, online observations, and in-depth interviews with 12 heavy users of Spotify or/and WiMP Music. The findings suggest heterogeneous management of static and dynamic playlists based on structural and contextual schemes of aggregating music. User control motivates different playlist practices that demonstrate new ways of collecting music via streaming services but also derive from pre-digital collecting.
Please contact me for the full version of the article!
Dissertation: This study is among the first to be explicitly concerned with music-streaming servi... more Dissertation: This study is among the first to be explicitly concerned with music-streaming services from a qualitative user perspective. It sheds light on how music in general, and streaming technology in particular, is perceived, made sense of, experienced and practiced in the context of the individual streaming user’s everyday life. Its research perspective is inspired by sociological phenomenology, starting with Alfred Schutz’s action-oriented approach to understanding intersubjective meaningful experience. This perspective informs both the methodological model and the theoretical framework of the study, which is otherwise interdisciplinary and eclectic.
The research was conducted in Norway, which currently boasts a globally pioneering streaming market. The study relies on a mixed-methods design using twelve heavy music-streaming users (ranging from seventeen to sixty years old) as informants. I began by devoting two months to sampling users’ self-reported practices and experiences with music-streaming services, combined with online observation and logging of all streamed tracks during this period. I followed up with individual in-depth interviews that were conducted while looking at the personal streaming-service interfaces together with the informants. This design is original to the dissertation and intended to make immediate experience sampling convenient for the informant. It is therefore also relevant for grasping everyday experiences of a taken-for-granted nature that arise in the context of mobile media and the ubiquitous Internet.
I develop my arguments through a discussion that draws on theoretical frameworks that fundamentally revolve around notions of human action, which is also a focus of my analyses (via user practices and experiences). The principal study finding involves the extent of the role that music has assumed in daily life as a result of streaming services. Streaming-related musical meaning is found to be intensely self-referential and personal, and streaming presents itself as a malleable lifeworld resource. I also argue that music-streaming services afford involvements in diverse modes of experience and practice that are realised through the role and impact of these services in everyday life, as demonstrated by the micro-dynamics that follow upon the act of streaming among individuals, the technology, the music and the context. The dissertation’s overall structure is divided in two: (1) the covering paper that will survey the research project as a whole, and (2) four articles written over the three-year course of the project.