Show Your Face! Investigating the Relationship Between Human Faces and Music’s Success

Streaming services are becoming the primary source for media consumption. Particularly platforms like SoundCloud, where users can disseminate user-generated content (UGC), are gaining relevance. To shed light into the drivers which positively influence the number of listeners, we draw from marketing literature related to depictions of people, which suggests that human faces can contribute to a higher degree of brand liking or brand identification. Thereupon, we propose a hypothesis which suggests that human faces on cover arts likewise generate more plays. We follow a data science approach using 1754 observations from SoundCloud and apply Google’s facial recognition API (Vision AI) to examine the impact of human faces on music’s success. We provide initial evidence that tracks with a human-face cover art yield in a higher number of plays compared to tracks with a cover art without a human face

‘Conspiracy Machines’ - The Role of Social Bots during the COVID-19 ‘Infodemic’

The omnipresent COVID-19 pandemic gave rise to a parallel spreading of misinformation, also referred to as an ‘Infodemic’. Consequently, social media have become targets for the application of social bots, that is, algorithms that mimic human behaviour. Their ability to exert influence on social media can be exploited by amplifying misinformation, rumours, or conspiracy theories which might be harmful to society and the mastery of the pandemic. By applying social bot detection and content analysis techniques, this study aims to determine the extent to which social bots interfere with COVID19 discussions on Twitter. A total of 78 presumptive bots were detected within a sample of 542,345 users. The analysis revealed that bot-like users who disseminate misinformation, at the same time, intersperse news from renowned sources. The findings of this research provide implications for improved bot detection and managing potential threats through social bots during ongoing and future crises

Digital Sociology and Online Music Communities: Models and Lessons from the Internet

With the rise of the internet, work from the of fields of digital sociology, communications/social media studies, and online research methods have become increasingly relevant for music education scholars both investigating and facilitating music teaching and learning in online contexts. While opportunities for online music making, teaching, and learning activities have grown exponentially, the number of online places dedicated to music making, learning, and sharing has exploded with the arrival of COVID as much of the world moves online. What was once an option – going online to teach and learn music – has now become a necessity for most musicians and music educators. What existing models can music educators draw on to teach and learn music in the age of COVID? We explore this question in this, the second of a three-part investigation of online communities of practice. The first study in the series (authors, 2021) surveyed digital music education in formal settings such as schools and institutions. This paper, second in the series, addresses online communities of practice involving music learning in what would usually take place in informal settings. We review current research in informal music education into areas of genre (vernacular, traditional, popular), fan-based, and composition. Our third and future investigation will consider the implications of on and offline convergent music teaching and learning. We contend that the most important and significant aspect of this work is not the technology but rather the sociological perspective -- the interactions and discourse that people have with one another through these digital enablers that render music learning, making, and teaching possible

Oiling the ‘Tireless Selling-Machine’ – Exploring Requirements for the Deployment of Social Bots in Social Commerce

Social media have become major platforms of commerce and changed the way we communicate and consume. Phenomena such as social bots add new dynamics to discussions and the spreading of information with the possible aim to influence or shape opinions and decisions. This study examines the requirements under which organizations would use social bots for commercial purposes. Interviews with 12 experts yielded a collection of requirements, including limitations, ethical considerations, and potentials for possible uses in marketing, social commerce, and customer service. It can be concluded that using social bots can be beneficial for commercial organizations, but that there is still a need for clarification of legalities

Coordinated amplification, coordinated inauthentic behaviour, orchestrated campaigns:A systematic literature review of coordinated inauthentic content on online social networks

The internet and online social networks have resulted in dramatic changes in the information landscape. Pessimistic views fear that networks and algorithms can limit exposure to various content by exposing users to pre-existing beliefs. In this respect, coordinated campaigns can amplify these individuals' voices above the crowd, capable of hijacking conversations, influencing other users and manipulating content dissemination. Through a systematic literature review, this chapter locates and synthesises related research on coordinated activities to (i) describe the state of this field by identifying the patterns and trends in the conceptual and methodological approaches, topics and practices; and (ii) shed light on potentially essential gaps in the field and suggest recommendations for future research. Findings show an evolution of the approaches used to detect coordinated activities. While bot detection was the focus in the early years, more recent research focused on using advanced computational methods based on training datasets or identifying coordinated campaigns by timely and similar content. Due to the data availability, Twitter is the most studied online social network, although studies have shown that coordinated activities can be found on other platforms. We conclude by discussing the implications of current approaches and outlining an agenda for future research

HOW HAVE MUSICIANS’ CAREERS CHANGED IN THE DIGITAL PLATFORM ERA?

openLa "platform society" è una realtà. O meglio, una seconda realtà che si aggiunge e si sovrappone alla dimensione fisica. Ciò vale anche per l'industria musicale. Gli ulitmi quindici anni hanno visto la crescita di piattaforme di streaming musicale come Spotify, con il conseguente riposizionamento dei vari attori coinvolti nell'industria e del relativo sistema economico. Per i musicisti, il nuovo scenario apre a nuove possibilità e pone nuove sfide.The platform society is a reality. Better said, it is a second reality that adds and intertwines with the physical dimension. This is so also for the music industry. The last fifteen years have seen the growth of music streaming platforms such as Spotify and the consequent repositioning of actors and revolution of the music economy. The new scenario opens up new possibilities and poses new challenges to musicians' careers

TransCoding – From `Highbrow Art' to Participatory Culture

Between 2014 and 2017, the artistic research project "TransCoding – From 'Highbrow Art' to Participatory Culture" encouraged creative participation in multimedia art via social media. Based on the artworks that emerged from the project, Barbara Lüneburg investigates authorship, authority, motivational factors, and aesthetics in participatory art created with the help of web 2.0 technology. The interdisciplinary approach includes perspectives from sociology, cultural and media studies, and offers an exclusive view and analysis from the inside through the method of artistic research. In addition, the study documents selected community projects and the creation processes of the artworks Slices of Life and Read me

TransCoding - From 'Highbrow Art' to Participatory Culture: Social Media - Art - Research

Between 2014 and 2017, the artistic research project "TransCoding - From 'Highbrow Art' to Participatory Culture" encouraged creative participation in multimedia art via social media. Based on the artworks that emerged from the project, Barbara Lüneburg investigates authorship, authority, motivational factors, and aesthetics in participatory art created with the help of web 2.0 technology. The interdisciplinary approach includes perspectives from sociology, cultural and media studies, and offers an exclusive view and analysis from the inside through the method of artistic research. In addition, the study documents selected community projects and the creation processes of the artworks Slices of Life and Read me

‘Chaotic lawful':teaching videogames in a licensing and permissions Lacuna

This short essay explores how the present coronavirus crisis and the resulting shift towards online teaching are intensifying the urgency of copyright issues concerning the use of digital content in higher education teaching contexts. This shift arguably aggravates the existing lack of permissions and licensing models that can accommodate videogame-related teaching in higher education. Writing in the broad context of teaching game studies, game design, game programming, game development, and computer arts in the UK, we draw on personal experience and a small informal survey conducted among colleagues in the academic community in order to offer a snapshot of issues currently experienced by educators. Our focus is on issues stemming from the use of audiovisual in-game content in lectures that are either streamed live or stored online for asynchronous student access, as well as the making available of videogames in playable formats to students in teaching contexts. In theory, it is likely that such uses will be covered by fair dealing/fair use exceptions; in practice, however, they may be misidentified as infringing, or as contravening institutional policy regarding the use of copyright-protected materials. As we want to argue, this is due to a combination of two main factors: the first, regarding the use and sharing of playable games, is that there is a lacuna of educational licenses and permissions models; the second, concerning the online storage and dissemination of in-game content, is that the monitoring of such content is now often relegated to algorithmic digital rights management (DRM) systems that are unable to distinguish between permissible and infringing material