Pathways

Pathways: mapping and negotiating downloaded music collections

Marj Kibby

Film, Media & Cultural Studies

April 8, 2023

A presentation to AoIR 09 | www.newcastle.edu.au

2Musical artifacts

Consumer goods with their

presumption of utility.

Collection with the implication

of objects ‘removed from

ordinary use’.

April 8, 2023


3Methodology

• Thirty-five semi-structured, in-depth interviews :

– questions about music acquisition, storage and organization, and access and use.

• Survey:

– quantifiable responses on collection size and format, types of music use and sources of recorded music.

• The interviews were transcribed and coded thematically, using grounded theory techniques.

April 8, 2023


4Collections in 2004

Vignoli interviewed individuals aged between twenty-three and twenty-nine, who ‘owned a large collection of digital music’.

He found that all participants owned a CD collection as well as their digital files and that their organization and use of their CD collection influenced the way they access their digital collection.

(Vignoli, 2004, p. 416).

April 8, 2023


5Collections 2008

My research four years later revealed that many of the participants had few or no CDs and much larger collections of digital files than Vignoli found.

The CD seemed to be an ephemeral product in that it was useful as a way of acquiring music files but not valued beyond that function.

Music files had a materiality and participants actively engaged with them; organizing them in multiple ways, creating play lists and mix-USB drives, and using them to mark events and cement relationships.

April 8, 2023


6Digital Collections

Thirty-five 18 to 25 year olds interviewed.

18 (51%) said that music was very important in their lives, and 15 (43%) more said that it was important.

While 3 (9%) described their collection as ‘enviable’, 22 others (69%) rated their collection as ‘good’ or ‘better than good’.

The most common size of the CD collection was 25 to 50 CDs, with 14 (41%) including their collection in this category.

Four people (12%) had more than five hundred CDs.

Two people had small vinyl collections.

April 8, 2023



Most of the interviewees reported a music file collection of more than 3,000 files, with 23 (65%) of them having file collections of this size.

With the average CD having twelve tracks, this is the equivalent of 250 CDs.

While half of them (17) went to a physical music store most weeks, nearly two thirds of them (20) visited an online music source most days.

The majority found out about new music from friends, although radio was still an important source for many.

Travelling, including walking, was the space most likely to be filled by music, while the bedroom was a close second with the majority reporting that they listen to music while studying, doing domestic tasks, ‘chilling out’ or going to sleep.

April 8, 2023


8Affective Attachment

Simon:

‘I have about 40 gigs worth [of music files].

I have a sort of semi-obscure music collection, one that I’ve built up myself.

I don’t like to share music personally because it devalues my own collection; like, I love the fact that my collection on my computer is unique.’

April 8, 2023


9Affective Attachment

Josh:

‘Some of it is like local sorts of bands that play in the pub scene in Germany or something – you’d never find it in a store.’

Daniel:

‘I’ve got some interesting stuff there, particularly my early nineties Norwegian black metal…. Yeah, some very cool stuff in there.’

April 8, 2023


10Access and Control

Alan:

‘It’s pretty sweet, um, Microsoft Windows Media Player sorts [my files] for me – you go on the net and it downloads all the album covers and that sort of thing and arranges it all systematically.

You can arrange it by artist names, the year it was released – so, yeah, it does it all automatically, which is awesome.

My CDs… my room is so messy… they’re fricking everywhere at the moment.’

April 8, 2023



Jessica:

‘I’ve only started making playlists a lot recently. I’ve made one for kind of sleep, sleepy kind of music not just all slow songs but it sets the mood a bit. Yeah, just general playlists for different moods I suppose. It sounds a bit lame but if you saw them, they’re really good.’

Leah:

‘I rate all my tracks as I add them; you know five stars for new things that I want to hear a lot. Then if it’s older or I’m sick of it I’ll take some stars off.’

April 8, 2023



Simon:

‘Even though the majority of my music is a digital collection, I still like to listen to albums. So even on my iPod I won’t put one or two tracks across, I’ll put a whole album. And I’ll try to listen to that album as a whole, and I hardly ever use the shuffle feature – it just kills the album.’

Joyleen:

‘If I put a CD on I find that now more so than before I had an mp3 that I get a bit bored listening to the same album.’

April 8, 2023


13Construction of Space

Jono:

‘Music is something I live and breathe something I listen to constantly in the car, just having something in the background on the computer at home, and at work I have music on constantly.’

Joyleen:

‘It’s very important to me that I have music going virtually all the time.’

April 8, 2023


14Construction of Space

Simon:

‘I don’t use my CDs any more. I use iTunes to listen on my laptop, or my iPod. I’ve got a nice little set of JVL speakers for listening at home.’

Daniel:

‘I suppose [the earpieces are] just not loud enough … you know I stick it in my ears and it’s not loud enough. The outside world still manages to seep in.’

April 8, 2023


15Social Connections

Carl:

‘If you see someone you know you take one ear piece out to indicate your willingness to exchange a few words.

If they leave both theirs in you know they just want to say hi and go on their way.

Or if they take both out and stop their player, they want to have a conversation.’

April 8, 2023



Alan:

‘The last track I got really excited about was the William Shatner version of Pulp’s Common People, and I shared that around with a lot of people. I got an advance copy … so I got it a few weeks before it was on the radio.’

Josh:

‘The two guys I live with, we share stuff over the home network. Otherwise I’ll just tell friends if I hear something new that’s pretty good.’

April 8, 2023



Michael:

‘I’ve got all my music on my computer, backed up, so I lend friends the CD because I have no use for it anymore.’

Leah:

‘I’ll give friends a USB drive with stuff on it that they’ll like. You know, like a mix tape.’

Stacey:

‘I use file sharing, but only with my friends. I don’t do that whole Limewire thing.’

April 8, 2023



The everywhere-portable file player with extraordinary storage capacity increasingly allows a user’s entire collection to be accessible anytime, anywhere, enabling contemporary collectors to transform their environment into a sonic landscape they’ve personally designed to meet their individual needs.

CRICOS Provider 00109J | www.newcastle.edu.au

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Pathways

Business

cd collection

social connections

affective

digital collections

digital collection

digital files

music files

collection