Abstract

Musicology refers to the study of music. As an interdisciplinary topic, the use of technology in the study of music is an emerging area of interest to marketers, IS/ISA professionals, music entertainment managers, and musicians. For instance, music streaming services provide an excellent opportunity to recommend songs, artists, and genres to listeners, based on prior listening habits and the listening habits of others who are similar. While the current listener recommendation systems have shown some success for within-country recommendations, they have proven inadequate when providing recommendations for songs foreign to a listener’s home country. This study explores audio musical attributes, including key, tempo, average pitch, and song length, and examines relationships with Hofstede’s cultural values and associations towards wider recommendation systems. We found strong correlations between tempo and both Power Distance and Uncertainty Avoidance; average pitch and Masculinity; key and Indulgence, and song length and Individualism. Culture may thus provide additional predictive capabilities for current recommendation systems, particularly for locations beyond the home country. Our work provides preliminary insights towards music streaming recommendation systems that may help record labels, artists, and other owners of intellectual property predict commercial success of their music across different cultures around the world.

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