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Streaming Social: Facebook, Spotify and the Construction of Identity in Cyberspace.

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Introduction

Music and identity are two concepts that have long been bound up with one another. From early works on
identity and culture, the idea that we as people are defined, at least in part by the music we listen to is one
that has persisted. With the development of music technologies, the possibilities for identity construction
through the consumption of music have expanded exponentially. For decades, people have been able to
collect physical manifestations of recorded music, in the forms of Vinyl, Cassette Tape and CD amongst
others, displaying them on shelves, in houses in much the same way as books, or photographs.

With the advent of the truly digital age, a new challenge was posed to these collections; the virtual. Rising
to prominence in the early years of the 2000s through services of varying cost, simplicity and legality such
as iTunes, Napster and LimeWire, the virtual digital music revolution has taken over the way music is
consumed, with downloaded music sales overtaking those of physical music sales for the first time in
2012.1

Much has been written, bemoaning the demise of physical media, and speculating on what the
consequences might be for the music industry, musicians and consumers 2. As we progress through the
2010s, a new challenger has arisen to downloaded music; that of streaming. The removal of the concept of
ownership from music consumption creates several challenges for the music industry. The removal of the
1 http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/jan/06/downloads-physical-sales-us accessed 13/3/2013
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ability of consumers to build up a fixed collection of cultural symbols also poses challenges for certain
accepted models of identity construction.

A parallel revolution to that of digital music has been the rise of social networking. Through the early
years of Friends Reunited, Bebo, MySpace to the now ubiquitous Facebook and Twitter, social networking
has become a feature of the daily lives of hundreds of millions of people across the world. With all of
these new opportunities for communication, a degree of re-examination of theories of identity
construction is required.

This dissertation aims to take existing ideas about identity, consumption, and music, and test them against
two of the most prominent services of the digital age; Facebook and Spotify. Facebook is the most
prominent social network on the planet, with 1.06 billion users of the service worldwide at the last count.
Spotify is one of the most popular music streaming services, with 15 million users in August 2012, 4
million of whom subscribe to the premium, advertising-free service.

These services are of interest because of their prominence and because of the way in which they interact.
Spotify gives users the option to share their listening habits on their Facebook timeline, creating an online,
searchable archive holding a record not of music ownership, but music consumption.

This fact alone has huge implications for notions of identity construction, no longer is the consumption of
music tied to an individual transaction, and beyond the monthly fee to access the service, users are able to
consume virtually any piece of recorded music they like, as many times as they wish. Music and identity
have the opportunity to come closer together than has ever been possible, or be separated completely.

Chapter 1 - The Story So Far

Any exploration of music and identity must begin with an examination of identity as a concept, and the
way in which our understanding of it has evolved. Whilst many different theories exist on the nature of
identity and its construction, the path that will be followed here is the theory of identity construction
through consumption as this can be the most easily linked to music.

In the 1950s Eriksons writings on identity outlined several proposed stages in the psychosocial
development of humans.3 Erikson argues that humans go through these stages of development, facing a
degree of conflict in each one. Whether or not this conflict is successfully resolved or not dictates the level
of security that we feel in later life.

The fifth stage in Eriksons theory of development occurs in adolescence and young adulthood, and
describes the conflict between identity and confusion. 4 In this stage young adults try to build up a sense of
who they are, and a failure to do so leads to confusion and uncertainty in later life with regards to
direction in life and a strong sense of self.

Since then, scholars have generally agreed that identity is something that is, at least to a certain extent,
constructed rather than something that we are born with 5. The increased liberation and breaking down of
social groupings and roles based on the nature of a persons birth 6 have led to what scholars have termed
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the era of the empty self 7 in which people are born into society, with a blank canvas upon which to
construct their identity.

Debate exists however as to the means which people use to create their own identity, and the extent to
which people rely on the influences of others in the choices that they make. 8 One widely circulated theory
is that of identity construction through consumption, that is, that the products we buy and use, enable us to
construct an identity for ourselves and for others to see. 9 This is particularly popular amongst writers in
marketing theory journals.10 A broader version of this notion is explored by academics in other disciplines,
particularly within psychology and the social sciences.

Current popular academic opinion favours the assertion that our identities are not single, complex
amorphous constructs that are permanently bearing down on our actions and lives. Current theory
advocates the notion of multiple, overlapping identities, that can be independently utilised, maintained and
brought to bear on our lives and our social interactions. 11 The idea is one that has been supported by recent
government commissioned study on what the notion of identity means and will mean in the UK over the
next 10 years. The idea that one person can have multiple identities, for example a 40 year old man could
consider himself a father and a bread winner as well as other identities relating to his personal life and his
hobbies.

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By breaking down the concept of identity into smaller, more manageable units makes it easier to
understand how separate aspects of identity may be constructed, allowing us to move towards at least a
part codification of the ways in which people make up their identities. The multiple identity theory also
allows for different, sometimes conflicting identities to be created by a single person, with each one rising
in importance at different times throughout a persons life.

Following on from the notion of multi-factor identities, we have the idea of possible selves 12, the theory
is that each of us creates a mental image of who we are, our own self-concept and who we could
become in the future. Possible selves could be more successful, attractive, popular, have achieved a
certain promotion, have a certain number of children, be living a certain lifestyle, or any other
combination of traits that make the possible self something to aspire towards.

On the other hand, a possible self could be a failure, someone who is dependent on alcohol or drugs,
infertile or unwell, and is a self that we feel must be avoided. Possible selves can change in relation to the
way we see ourselves, the way we view people around us, such as colleagues, family or friends, and the
difference between our perceived selves and possible selves has been suggested as being the source of our
self esteem.13

On something of a tangent, it is worth noting at this point whether construction of identity through
consumption of products is a positive thing or not. Other options that have been put forth as means of
identity construction have been through ones actions rather than ones possessions. Marx has argued
against consumerism as a path to happiness, because it encourages commodity fetishism 14 and
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entrusting our happiness in something as temporary as material goods could be considered a dangerous
practice. Directly speaking about identity, Fromm asks the question, If I am what I have, and what I have
is lost, who then am I?, something which Belk refers to when describing the feelings of people whose
possessions have be lost or stolen.

There is also some debate about the scope of possibilities for identity construction through these means,
this boils down to the level of free choice we as consumers actually have. Studies of cultural industries
specifically have shown that the level of choice available to consumers to be strongly mediated 15 by
different levels of cultural organisations. This gives rise to questions of whether or not the possibilities for
identity construction through consumption are truly unlimited16, and whether, limited or not, the enormous
spectrum of consumable symbols offers us a plethora of possibilities, or paralyses us with too much
choice.17

Returning to the subject of consumption, there is some debate on what consumption of any product
actually involves, as well as why a person might choose one product over another. Catherine Phillips
suggests that people may actually choose products more for their value in constructing an identity, rather
than for their utilitarian value.18 Looking back to Covas concept of linking value19, one might be
inclined to agree that what a product says about the purchaser is more important than the product itself.

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In reality, the choice to purchase a product is probably a combination of many factors, of which identity
construction and utility value are but two. What I would like to suggest draws upon De Noras concept of
emotional work20. I would suggest that the need to construct an identity for ourselves, is one that
persists throughout life, in line with Eriksons writings on development, and that identity construction
could be considered a part of a products utility value, because of the level of benefit gained through doing
the emotional work of maintaining and building our sense of who we are.

Consumption of products is a widely studied field, especially amongst marketing theorists, but when
dealing with issues of identity, the purchasing and consuming of consumer products can only take us so
far. As previously mentioned, the definition of consumption needs to be broadened in order to better
describe the way in which we construct identity. Consumption is an inherently social act, and some
scholars have argued that we consume primarily to facilitate social interactions 21. As such, we must
acknowledge that all consumption is situated within a cultural context.

From here it is not a large leap of logic to accept Swidlers notion of a cultural toolkit 22 an array of
symbols that together can be considered to make up the culture of a particular group of people through
their associated meanings, however different these meanings might be to different people. Whilst
Swidlers writing primarily concerns cultural studies, it is useful as a jumping off point for considering an
expanded definition of consumption.

By considering consumption as the process of interaction with the cultural toolkit, whether by buying a
new pair of trainers, a new car or a new hoover, or by listening to a certain type of music, or artist, or by
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visiting a landmark, we can understand the specific ways in which we consume cultural symbols for their
linking value, and appropriate associated meanings into our identities.

Now is a good time to introduce Belks ideas on identity and the self, specifically his work on what he
terms the extended self23, the idea that our self concept is not only composed of our bodies and our
personalities, but also of the objects we own, interact with and create. Belk sets out a series of ways in
which the self can be extended through interaction with objects. The different methods and means are
many fold, and too complex to outline here, but the key ways in which the self can be extended is through
being, doing, having and knowing24. By these means, a person can extend themselves through other
objects, places, people and relationships.

The idea of the extended self fits in to the identity construction theory because it provides a framework for
the incorporation of any symbolic object, not just on the basis of the moment of consumption, but taking
into account our relationships with a product, or a symbol. It also argues against the codification of
specific items to specific meanings and that identity construction and projection are two different
constructs. When we incorporate an item into our extended self, we incorporate a certain amount of its
meaning into ourselves, an outside observer can look at our interaction with the item, and based on
whether the item or the person is known better, infer the meaning of one onto the other.25 The significance
of this allowance will become clearer later in this discussion, when we turn our focus specifically towards
music.

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As previously mentioned, most theories of consumption state that it is an inherently social act, with some
academics going as far as to claim that the primary function of consumption is the facilitation of social
interaction.26 Cova and Covas writings on the concept of tribes27 revolves around the idea of shared
emotions or consumption symbols to bind people together into small communities. The way in which
members of a tribe can relate to the same cultural symbols in the same way to create a shared sense of
identity lends itself well to other theories of identity construction, as it shows us an example of identity
construction in action.

A significant part of the writing on tribes as they exist today is outlining the fact that a person can be a
member of multiple tribes, through the utilisation of different cultural symbols. This could be considered
evidence in favour of multiple identity theory. If it is possible for a person to be a part of different groups,
with different shared symbols, emotions or values, then it feels logical to suggest that said person has the
ability to actively construct different group member identities and switch between them depending on
location and social context.

A constant theme of the concluding passages of many writings on consumption and identity, is the
reminder that consumption never occurs in a vacuum. 28 Shankar et. al. criticise consumption theory for
assigning the consumer too much agency in the construction of their own identity.29 Whilst it is true that in
our consumer orientated, liberated western society that we have a great deal of freedom to construct our
identities as we please, the construction always occurs in a social context, and the effects of socialisation

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can never be overlooked. This is a highly relevant reminder for this dissertation, and we will come back to
contexts of socialisation in a later chapter when we deal with the rise of social networking online.

With the staggering levels of consumable symbols available to us, there comes a few caveats, authors on
the subject are quick to warn that, whilst identity can be constructed through consumption, we should
avoid efforts to codify the effects of different symbols on different identities. 30 This post modern approach
takes into account the fact that whilst on the surface certain objects might relate to certain identities for
specific reasons, there are a multitude of other factors at play in any instance of consumption, as such, we
can never be completely sure what a person means to do with their identity by consuming a certain
product.

Consumption as a practice has many forms, but in directing our focus towards the consumption of media,
we must touch on the practice of collecting, which in itself can be considered a form of consumption,
albeit one slightly extracted from the intended purpose of the media being consumed. Walter Benjamins
writings on his own collecting practice give a useful insight into the mindset of a collector, 31 and he
reflects at length on the driving force behind his collecting practice, and what his collection (of books in
this case rather than recorded music) means to him.

The key aspect of collecting that is of interest here is the building up of an archive, that contains a set of
keys to the collectors memories. As a collection builds, we associate the items collected, not only with
their objective meaning in the collection, or their content, but also with our identity at the time of entry
into the collection. A person might purchase a set of new books when moving into a new house, and
through browsing the collection years later, may recall their sense of self at the time of purchase.
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The notion of an archive of a persons life story, the history of who they have been, comes up in several
texts relating to identity over the course of a persons life. 32 Existential crises are an inevitable part of
human life, in a world that has been trained to question everything and take nothing for granted. This
basic insecurity about the significance of our own existence, and a desire for some form of continuity after
death leads to a desire to know we have existed at all. The idea that a part of our self concept is a sense of
who we have been, the knowledge that we have lived, existed and made our mark on the universe is one
that I feel is worthy of closer examination.

The need to carve out an identity generates other dilemmas, and studies have looked to codify the extent
to which we attempt to fit in with our social peer groups33, and the means with which we attempt to set
ourselves apart.34 The short answer is that all people are different in their need for uniqueness, and this
must be acknowledged in any study of identity construction, an irritatingly unstructurable answer for
some, but reassurance for others that humans can not be so simply understood and predicted.

Moving on to media consumption, the true focus of this work, we find the most readily available writings
on the subject of media use and identity focus on adolescents, which fits in with Eriksons outline for
psychosocial development.35 Larsons study of private media use by adolescents reveals some key insights
into identity construction in young people, notably that private music consumption enables young people

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to explore different possible identities, as part of the process of questioning identities handed down to
them by their parents.36

A key point is that emotional stability in adolescents seems to be linked, at least in part to identity
security, it has been argued that different possible selves and identities have associated emotions that go
along with them37, so it makes sense that emotional response to music can be useful in the exploration of
different possible identities. This is backed up by the complementary observation that identity security is a
huge source of anxiety for young people.38

Larson has also argued that music as a whole is something relevant to adolescents, because it is generally
aimed at more specific demographics, teens listen to music aimed at teens and therefore relate well to it. 39
Larson also reminds us to avoid judging the effects of music on identity construction based on the overt
messages of the music, that it is the individuals response to the music, rather than the music itself that
helps in the construction of identity.40

The fact that we cannot objectively codify musics effect on identity has led to academics advocating the
study of individual narratives of consumption in order to understand the relationship between music
consumption and identity construction.41 It is here that we can tie together several of the elements of
consumption discussed earlier, notably those of collecting, and the building of a personal archive. Music
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collections are something that are generally retained over the course of a lifetime, for a multitude of
reasons42 but for this reason, the analysis of personal record collections can yield detailed narratives of a
persons life, and the ways in which their identity has evolved. 43

In the context of adolescent identity construction, authors have noted that identification with a sub-culture,
is one of the easiest ways in which a person can create and support a sense of their own identity. 44 Because
of its proliferation throughout our society, music makes for an ideal shared consumption symbol around
which to build a sub-cultural community.45

All of this information is reinforced by Shankar et. al. who show that music plays a huge role in identity
construction, emotional security, social interaction, peer group association, demarcation of uniqueness
amongst young people, all filtered through narratives of socialisation and catalogued in a retained archive
of cultural artefacts, that can be used as keys to unlock narratives of who we have been throughout our
lives.46

The final element of identity construction is identity projection to others. In order to acheive this, the
personal archive of the record collection can be put on public display for others to see. 47 From here, others

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can view the collection, using their own knowledge of the subject matter and the owner of the collection
to infer associated meanings on either the collection or the collector.48

Drawing all of the theories of identity construction together, I would like to put forward the following
loose model for identity construction through music consumption:

Music is one of a multitude of cultural symbols that can be drawn upon (consumed), by people throughout
their lives49.

By purchasing a CD, LP or tape, a person incorporates new meaning into their own self concept,
extending the self through the act of consumption.50 Through private media use, a person is able to
experiment with different possible identities, using their emotional response to different musics 51 to
explore possible selves.52

Regardless of the effect it has on identity, the music accumulated over the course of a lifetime serves as a
personal archive of a persons identity project which can be explored in order to satisfy a need to feel as
though one has existed, and been someone over the course of this existence.

Through the display of physical manifestations of music consumption, in the form of records on a shelf, a
person is then able to publicly associate themselves with a set of cultural symbols in an attempt to project
a sense of who they are.53

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Other people are then able to view this collection, and build a picture of the owners identity based on
their own inferred meanings of these cultural symbols. 54

From this proposed model of identity construction, we can see that the music collection, the archive of a
persons consumption is the key to the relationship between music consumption and identity. The
following chapters will explore the impact that the changing landscape of music consumption in the
digital age has had, and will have on this model of identity construction.

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Chapter 2 - A Wild Internet Appears

With the coming of age of the Internet as a mainstream channel for accessing multimedia, the music
industry has been forced to adapt to the new possibilities for music consumption presented by the digital
age. Legally purchased and downloaded music officially overtook physical music sales in 2012, 55
demonstrating that the market places a great deal of value on the immediacy of access that downloading
music offers. It is these developments that create a need to reexamine theories of identity construction
through music consumption and test whether or not they are still relevant in the age of the internet.

The most obvious aspect of the transition from physical media to downloaded media is the removal of a
degree of physicality from the process of music consumption. Where once we were able to pick up a
physical object, be it a CD, LP or cassette tape and have some conception that the piece of plastic we held
in our hands was the music, we now simply have 1s and 0s sitting on our computer or MP3 player hard
drives, completely invisible to us until we want to access them. Authors have charted the tangibility
preference of consumers,56 and noted that the monetary value placed on music has gone down as a result
of the loss of a physical manifestation of it.

Digital downloads also allow new possibilities for the illegal acquisition of music. Services such as
LimeWire, Napster and websites such as The Pirate Bay all allowed people to explore and consume as
much music as they could listen to by removing the cost barrier to entry.57 This freedom to consume

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creates a vicious cycle for the music industry as customers desire for music has outgrown their ability to
pay,58 driving them towards illegal services in order to get their music fix. 59

The transition from the physical media to downloads has been claimed to rob us of a large part of the
sensory experience of consuming music and authors have attributed the resurgence in vinyl sales to a
degree of alienation felt by consumers.60 It is easy to dismiss these complaints as unhelpfully nostalgic and
sentimental, but Belks theories on the extended self indicate that the idea of losing a degree of physical
interaction with an object could impact on our ability to incorporate its associated meanings into our
extended selves.61

Another take on this argument would be to ask the question of whether or not our experience of listening
to music changes as a result of the removal of a physicality of a record. It could be argued that removing
the unique physical manifestation of a record allows us to appreciate the music in a more pure and direct
sense, by allowing us to ignore everything except the audio. This leads to the debate over what exactly we
are consuming when we listen to different types of media, which whilst relevant to the scope of this
discussion, is far too broad and complex to be discussed here in any sort of detail. Consumption of music
in this dissertation is viewed as a person gaining the ability to listen to a recording of a piece of music in
one form or another.

Related to the debate about what recorded music actually is is the research carried out into the
unbundling of music as we move into the digital age. Where the power to dictate which tracks were
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purchased by a consumer at the point of sale was once held by the record companies in determining track
listings for albums, the download revolution has given the power to the consumers to select individual
tracks from an album and purchase them for a lower cost. 62 Consequently the concept of an album has
been disrupted, and it could be argued that consumers now have a much greater degree of choice when
buying music. If individual tracks on an album are understood as being consumable cultural symbols in
their own right, then the number of symbols now available for incorporation into the extended self is
greatly expanded.

Downloaded music also impacts on theories of identity construction discussed earlier by interfering with
the notion of a music collection. As iTunes and other music download services were rising to prominence,
authors raised the issue of whether or not people would more willingly dispose of unwanted digital music
because of the lack of a tangible object to throw away.63 Further research of the subject showed that not
only are people just as unwilling to dispose of digital music, they are also unwilling to throw away music
that they did not even pay for.64

This would indicate that the concept of ownership of a piece of music, whether the result of a purchase or
not, is still a relevant concept in the digital age. Furthermore, the theory of identity construction through
the establishment of a collection set out in the previous chapter still holds up with downloaded music:
most pieces of music management/playback software keep a curated display of all of the users music that
can be maintained by the user and then browsed through and viewed by others. The theory runs into a
problem when we arrive at the idea of displaying a collection. A physical record collection still remains
visible to passers by when the CD or record player is switched off, the same cannot be said for a collection
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of music housed on a computer hard drive or an MP3 player. The virtualising of music does put up a
barrier to viewing the owners collection, however browsing through a friends iTunes library or scrolling
through the songs on their iPod is a practice that has been documented. 65 Taking this information into
account, it can be argued that it is possible for someone to present a record collection for another person to
view and make assumptions about the owners identity, although it must be admitted that downloaded
music is harder to present publicly than physical media.

Aside from the building of a collection of recordings for the purposes of projecting an identity we have
the idea that listening to a piece of music can aid construction of identity and self-concept by triggering
emotions associated with a particular possible self. 66 Downloaded music offers us a great deal of
flexibility as to when and where we listen to the music that we own. Studies on iPod culture have shown
that people use portable music players to shape their experience of the world around them. 67 The capacity
of a modern MP3 player to hold a persons entire record collection allows them to consume any piece of
purchased music anywhere they are, realising the emotions required to experience different possible
selves.68 This idea goes further than perhaps is initially obvious. Whilst increased flexibility of location is
a huge part of portable music listening, the discreet, compact nature of an MP3 player means that we can
listen to certain types of music without fear of social reprisals. An example of this could be a person who
outwardly expresses the identity of a Goth, but secretly harbours a passion for the Spice Girls being able
to listen to Viva Forever whilst walking down the street, without feeling as though he is being judged for
his choice of media . In this way, the portability of downloaded music aids the realisation of possible
selves by allowing us to carry out private media69 interactions in more public spaces, indeed the idea of
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listening to socially forbidden music in a public space could give the listener a feeling of subversive
power, which in turn could aid identity construction.

Downloading is currently the most popular way of accessing music online, but there is another means of
consuming music that has even greater potential to disrupt existing notions of identity construction
through music. Streaming music is a means of accessing music near instantaneously, provided the user has
an active internet connection at the time. Streaming sites such as Last.FM and Pandora and services such
as Spotify Free, offer advertising supported streaming options, giving consumers access to a large library
of music for free. There are certain quality trade-offs required to provide a free service, 70 and so many
services offer a paid-for option, that generally improves audio quality and removes advertising in
exchange for a monthly fee.

In relation to this discussion, the most important trade off associated with switching to a streaming service
is the loss of ownership over music that has been paid for (directly or through exposure to advertising).
Users are not given direct access to an audio file on their hard drive, instead having to access the
streaming service through a piece of software or a website. In using a streaming service, consumers are in
effect renting access to a library of music, gaining the ability to listen to virtually anything at any time, but
forfeiting traditional ownership over the music. This is an issue raised by Bahanovich in his study of
young people and music consumption,71 the study found that many people would be open to the idea of an

70 Last.FM and Pandora feature banner advertising and do not allow a user to select which tracks they want to
listen to, instead choosing music automatically based on a users preffered artists and genres. Spotify on the other
hand allows users to choose individual tracks, but interrupts listening with more intrusive audio adverts at regular
intervals.

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all you can eat download service, but a significantly smaller proportion of people would be interested in
paying for access to a streaming service if they did not actually get to own the music they were listening
to.72 The same survey also stated that if people did use a streaming service, many of them felt that they
would also maintain a collection of their favourite music for the sake of actually owning it. The rate of
uptake for paid-for streaming services also indicates that ownership of music is something that many
people prize very highly.73

The reluctance of people to relinquish ownership of their music would appear to indicate that the switch
from downloaded to streamed music consumption requires a much larger paradigm shift than the switch
from physical media to downloads. As a result, it cannot be assumed that existing theories of identity
construction still apply to the use of streaming services. Giving up the right to own music in exchange for
greater freedom of access gives us a legal means of satisfying our desire for a vast array of different
music.74 This interferes with the notion of a collection most strongly, and with reference to Benjamins
thoughts on collecting, the idea that someone might own a piece of music and never listen to it

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a book that they will never read) becomes impossible.

It is clear that streaming music is going to have a profound impact on identity construction in relationship
to the theory that I have already laid out. In some respects, the use of a streaming service seems to benefit
our ability to construct an identity, especially in relation to our own self concept and exploration of
possible selves. The de-coupling of music from an individual transaction gives us unlimited potential
(aside from time constraints) for what music we consume and the prevalence of smartphones with apps
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capable of accessing streaming services expands our capacity for mobile listening even further than the
introduction of the iPod. This means that we are now able to explore the emotions associated with
different possible selves wherever and whenever we like, unconstrained by the music we actually own,
because we can access any virtually any piece of music we like on a whim. It can be argued that this new
freedom powerfully backs up Larsons writing on private media consumption 76, Markus and Nurius on
possible selves77 and De Noras on emotional work.78 Conversely, the trading away of ownership means
that it appears to be impossible to maintain any sort of record collection; it could be argued that the ability
of the consumer to construct a playlist of favourite tracks for easy access could be viewed as a form of
collection, but this can be countered by the fact that should the user ever stop paying for the service,
closes their account (if the service is free) or the service becomes unavailable, access to those playlists
will be lost, and the user will be left with nothing more than when they originally signed up.

The key problem with streaming music in terms of our ability to carry out identity work, is the fact that
the loss of ownership strips consumers of the ability to meaningfully create any form of publicly viewable
collection of music that other people can use to make assumptions about the identity of the collections
owner. What is required is some way of recreating a viewable collection of music that can be displayed as
a means of saying, this is the music that I listen to and enjoy in order to allow the music consumer the
ability to project an image of their identity to other people. I would like to suggest that the answer to this
problem may lie in social networking. Since its initial creation, the internet has been a powerful tool for
social interaction, allowing people to interact across the globe through email, instant messaging, VoIP,
video conferencing and dedicated social network websites. Whilst numerous social networks have come
and gone over the last 10 years, the biggest name in social networking is Facebook. With over 1 billion
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active users at the last count,79 Facebook in its current form allows users to create a personal Timeline on
which they can publish text, hyperlinks, photographs, videos, public events and life events. This timeline
can also be published to through Facebooks extendable Open Graph framework, 80 which allows custom
built Facebook Apps and external websites to log and publish information about a users online activity;
for example the website SoundCloud provides a platform for users to upload self created audio, and
publishes this audio onto a users Facebook timeline automatically for others to access. In this way, users
of Facebook are able to maintain an extensive archive of every one of their actions online in a service that
they have connected with their Facebook account. This archive consists of a public facing timeline that
can be curated and edited, to remove unwanted posts or only display them to certain people, and as a
searchable Activity Log viewable only to the owner, which holds every single action that Facebook has
recorded.

As mentioned earlier, this dissertation will focus primarily on Facebook and Spotify as an example of the
way in which music streaming services can interact with social networking. This is partly due to a need to
constrain the discussion to two specific examples to avoid making generalisations for the sake of saving
time and the fact that Facebook and Spotify are the two biggest names in their respective fields in the UK.
Spotify allows a wide range of interactions with Facebook, however the most visible of these are: the
option to document every song, artist, album and playlist listened to, the ability to create, share and
subscribe to publishable playlists, the ability to send links to individual tracks, artists and albums to a
single friend, or publish them onto the Facebook timeline. Spotify itself also contains a system for
following friends and artists, allowing the user to be informed directly of listening habits, new content
and other Spotify activity.

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The end result of the interaction between the two services is an archive that can be curated and displayed
online, much more publicly than a library of MP3 files on a computer or MP3 player, or a record
collection on shelves in the home. This collection of music is distinct as well because it does not represent
an archive of consumption through purchasing, but an archive of music listening that is completely
unbound from financial constraints (beyond any monthly fees or exposure to advertising). In addition to
the level of detail recorded about a users music listening, when the information is displayed on the
Facebook timeline, it is interspersed with a record of all of the users other online actions, giving viewers
of a timeline an increased level of context in which to inform their assumptions about a users identity. It
would appear that this capacity for archiving music consumption outstrips the abilities of a traditional
record collection. The content is more flexible, editable, displayable and presented with an unprecedented
level of context. It appears that far from being robbed of our ability to project a set of symbolic resources
for others to make assumptions about identity, by utilising the integration between Spotify and Facebook,
users are now given a blank canvas of unprecedented resolution upon which they can construct an identity
to project to the world.

It seems that the theory of identity construction through music consumption set out at the end of chapter 1
is still relevant to the digital age; with the consequence of the use of streaming services being a large
increase in the level of access to tracks and flexibility as to when and where these tracks are listened to.
Through the combination of Spotify and Facebook, the created archive of listening takes on a new level of
detail and context. From this it appears that the Internet is expanding, rather than diminishing our potential
for constructing and projecting identity through the act of music consumption. This assertion raises
questions about the level of agency involved in identity construction using music, and in the following
chapter I hope to address some of the following questions.

How active are most users of Facebook in the construction and projection of their identity with particular
reference to music listening habits?

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To what extent is Facebook seen as a tool for communicating with friends, or a platform for identity
construction?

To what extent are people aware of the relationship between their music consumption and their identity?

Is the sharing of personal information on social network seen as a good thing, or a necessary act in order
to access a powerful communication tool?

To what extent do users censor the information that appears on Facebook, and does this censorship extend
to listening habits documented by Spotify?

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Chapter 3 - Fieldwork description

In order to gain a basic level of real world perspective on issues of identity construction and music
consumption, a survey was devised (see appendix 1) with a series of multiple choice questions designed
get a feel for the respondents level of awareness of sharing of music consumption activity online,
opinions on the importance of music to understanding the identities of others and for those respondents
who were Spotify users, the extent to which they made use of various sharing features.

The survey was conducted using a convenience sample, a series of requests for help were published on
Facebook and Twitter, with other people encouraged to re-post the link to the survey to their friends.
Requests were also sent out on Twitter to various high profile figures to retweet the link to the survey, a
few of which were successful, including one to author Simon Reynolds.

Responses were screened based on whether or not the respondent was an active Facebook user, and those
who answered no were taken to the end of the survey. In total, 115 responses were received of which 13
were discarded because the respondent was not active on Facebook. Of those that remained, the
respondents were separated into those who used Spotify, those who could remember a time before having
access to the internet (as a nod to authors who have queried what the effects of being immersed in internet
access since birth might be).81 The vast majority of the respondents were aged 19-22, in keeping with the
general age range of a community of undergraduate university students.

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The use of a convenience sample in this case was a practical trade off, deemed acceptable because of the
intention to supplement the survey data with follow up interviews. In this instance the survey data is
intended to give a general understanding of strong trends in terms of popular opinion and beliefs relating
to music consumption and identity. The respondents were also asked if they had had ever studied music or
identity at a degree level, but the data showed that this appeared to have no bearing on the responses given
to the multiple choice questions however those who were familiar with identity issues generally gave
more detailed and informed responses in the free comment section at the end of the survey.

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Chapter 4 - Analysis and implications for hypotheses.

How active are most users of Facebook in the construction and projection of their identity with particular
reference to music listening habits?

98% of respondents to the survey agreed that music was an important part of their life, with 94% also
agreeing that the music they consumed was often dictated by their mood. People are also very aware of
what their taste in music says about them as a person to others, and that people do infer aspects of identity
from the music tastes and consumption habits of others.

What the results of the survey do not show is that people actively construct a specific identity through
music consumption. The construction of identity through music consumption would appear to be more of
a subconscious process rather than actively deciding on the impression that they want to give, and
listening to music accordingly. Despite appearing to contradict the previously laid out theories, this result
is in keeping with arguments that theories of identity construction through music consumption frequently
assign the consumer too much agency.82 Whilst this convenience sample can not conclusively state
anything, the general feeling of those surveyed would appear to indicate that whilst music consumers have
a great deal of agency in the music they consume, the sharing of music tastes online is not considered an
act of identity construction.

To what extent is Facebook seen as a tool for communicating with friends, or a platform for identity
construction?

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Whilst it can be argued that Facebook offers a platform for the construction of identity, offering users the
opportunity to present biographical data, photos, events, thoughts and stories from their lives, the
interviewees all stated that the primary function of Facebook was as a tool for communication, especially
over long distances. None of the interviewees considered it as a major platform for construction of
identity, stating that they would hope that people on Facebook would know them well enough in real life
to understand who they were. One interviewee claimed that she found anything posted on Facebook that
was clearly an act of identity construction annoying, claiming that it felt as though the person in question
was boasting about the superiority of their own lives.

Despite this, the interviewees and the results of the survey would indicate that even if it is not seen as one,
people still use Facebook as a platform for identity construction, but not in an active way. Again whilst
seemingly opposed to the theories laid out earlier, this conclusion is supported by other research. By using
Facebook primarily as a communications tool people are able to perform social interactions across the
internet, the cultural resources displayed on Facebook help to form a sense of place (albeit a constructed
one) in keeping with writings on identity construction in online mediated communities. 83 The act of
consumption has itself been claimed to occur in order to facilitate social interactions. 84 This claim may be
an over-generalisation but it does appear to explain at least partially why Facebook was not viewed
primarily as a platform for the projection of identity by the respondents to the survey.

To what extent are people aware of the relationship between their music consumption and their identity?

Respondents and interviewees acknowledged that a link between music consumption and a persons
identity exists. One interviewee agreed that a link existed, but argued that music tastes generally reflect a
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persons personality and that music consumption as a function of identity construction must be considered
on a multidimensional scale; taking into account the extent to which a person listens to music, the known
level of eclecticism of their tastes as well as the specific details of the types of music that they consume.
Another respondent corroborated this, arguing that it is possible to infer aspects of identity through
looking at a persons music consumption but that these inferences are always made in the context of what
is known about a person, supporting previous academic writing on the topic of identity inference through
consumption of symbolic cultural resources.85

Is the sharing of personal information on social network seen as a good thing, or a necessary act in order
to access a powerful communication tool?

In terms of general sharing of information, the interviewees claimed to be fairly ambivalent to the idea of
sharing any activity, not viewing it as a particularly positive or negative thing. Different types of sharing
did elicit different opinions. For example it was generally agreed that the more useful or interesting the
content was, the more it was viewed as worthy of sharing. The interviewees jointly agreed that the worst
form of Facebook activity was the sharing of adverts from games being played by a user. People generally
viewed posts containing user created content as being the most worthwhile, and had a mixed reaction to
music related posts, ranging from uninterested to appreciative. The level of appreciation for music related
posts seems to correlate with the level of interest that the viewer has in discovering new music.

With regards to the sharing of personal information on Facebook, views seem to vary. None of the people
interviewed claimed to put personal information on Facebook for the purposes of creating an online
identity. The interviewees ranged from putting the bare minimum amount of personal information on
Facebook because of concerns over privacy and security to adding data whenever Facebook made it
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convenient to do so. The interviewees expressed little interest in expanding their online profiles in such a
way that reflected an identity that they wanted to project to other people, although they acknowledged that
people might make certain assumptions about their own identities based on the content of their Facebook
pages.

To what extent do users censor the information that appears on Facebook, and does this censorship
extend to listening habits documented by Spotify?

Censorship of music related posts on Facebook was not something that the interviewees considered a
necessary part of participation in a social network. The survey results showed that only 39% of people
would actively avoid sharing a piece of music on Facebook if they thought that they would be judged
negatively as a result. Similarly only 34% claimed that they only shared music on Facebook that reflected
positively on them. Amongst the interviewees there was a general feeling that the majority of
embarrassing posts on Facebook quickly got lost amongst all of the other information and so did not
merit being censored. The main type of content that interviewees admitted to censoring was photographs,
especially photographs from nights out that may reflect badly on the user should they be seen by
judgemental employers, friends or relatives.

The results on the level of censorship carried out by users of Facebook and Spotify are in keeping with the
idea that state that people generally are unwilling to part with any music that they have purchased and are
still willing to display embarrassing records (usually novelty records) in their collections 86. This could
theoretically translate into censorship of Spotify activity on Facebook. If users of Spotify feel a degree of
ownership over the music that they consume (despite the fact that no financial ownership exists) then they
may be just as unwilling to part with a record of their music consumption as they would be to part with a
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physical record or a downloaded file. Of course, this is purely hypothetical; in reality it is plausible that
the implications of leaving potentially embarrassing content on Facebook for people to see may not be
significant enough to warrant proactive censoring.

When considering the results of the survey and interviews, it is worth noting that much of what was
discovered could be explained and related to existing theories of identity construction with a certain
degree of interpretation. This would appear to argue the case for the validity of the proposed system of
identity construction through music consumption outlined in the first two chapters. It requires re-stating
that identity construction in this manner is simply one possible method of identity construction through
music consumption, and the range of responses given indicate that identity construction through music
consumption in this way is certainly not universal.

From the responses received to the survey and the sentiments from the interviewees, the general
impression is that identity construction through music streaming services combined with social
networking sites is probably better regarded as a phenomenon rather than a process. The construction of
identity seems to be a by-product of the social interactions triggered by the act of music consumption as
has been previously suggested for music consumption in the past. 87 This puts into perspective and
reinforces what has been reiterated throughout this project; that music consumption is not the be all and
end all of identity construction.

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Conclusion

This dissertation has explored the construction and projection of identity through the consumption of
music and the ways in which this process has been affected by the advent of the digital age, with specific
reference to music streaming through Spotify and the opportunities offered for identity projection through
Facebook. Beginning with an exploration of existing theories of identity construction through music
consumption, the study set about combining different theories of identity construction into a loose
framework that can be applied to the consumption of music through physical media. The effects of the
internet on these theories were then explored, looking firstly at the increased flexibility offered by
downloaded music and the increased portability offered by portable MP3 players. Finally, the effects of
music streaming services were examined, looking at how the removal of the concept of ownership of
music had on its capacity to aid in identity construction. The next phase of the project aimed to test the
loose framework of identity construction against a convenience sample of Facebook users, containing a
subset of Spotify users. The results were then compared with the responses of a group of interviewees,
selected from the survey respondents. The results were examined to determine whether or not the
framework for identity construction was still relevant to music consumption through streaming.

The findings of the project indicated that many existing theories of identity construction and projection
are still relevant to a combination of music streaming and social networking through Spotify and
Facebook. Whilst showing that with a little modification and interpretation, the framework laid out could
be used as a guide to one particular method for identity construction, the results indicated that theories of
identity construction through music consumption assign music consumers with too much agency in the
process of identity construction; something that has already been suggested in literature. 88 The general
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impression gained from the responses was that people are aware of issues of identity construction, but
they are generally more proactive in assessing the identities of others than they are in constructing their
own identity. With specific regards to streaming music, there is a degree of variance regarding the extent
to which the lack of ownership over the music consumed is regarded as a positive or negative thing. Some
respondents to the survey claimed to use Spotify more or less exclusively for listening to music, enjoying
it because of the flexibility and freedom it offers in accessing different types of music. For those people
looking for a legal way to consume a large variety of music, Spotify presents an attractive alternative to
illegal downloading or paying for every track listened to. Further research is needed into whether a
persons willingness to give up ownership of music is tied to their opinions on identity construction and
music taste in general.

The fact that people do not tend to actively construct a desired identity through consumption reinforces
the assertion that music construction is not the only way in which people construct and project their
identities and that identity construction is not the primary or sole purpose of music consumption. I would
argue that music consumption exists as an activity that serves several functions in a persons life. Whilst
music consumption is carried out primarily for entertainment, it also serves to shape a persons mood by
triggering certain emotions,89 shape a persons experience of their environment through mobile
consumption90 and serve to facilitate social interactions through presenting a culturally symbolic resource
that can be drawn upon and related to by groups of people.

The findings of the study also highlight the fact that whilst music consumption is a powerful tool for
constructing identity, music consumption activity that is published online will be interpreted in the context
of the information that it is presented alongside and what is already known about the consumer. Looking
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purely at Facebook information, there is a general availability of information presented by users relating
to that persons biographical identity, but social identity must be inferred through the examination of
interactions that are visible on Facebook combined with what is known about a person in the offline
world.

The lack of specifically constructed identities online suggests that people are moving away from the idea
of constructing an online identity in addition to their offline one. This is evidenced by the fact that in
recent years the number of online social networking profiles that contained a great deal of embellished or
fabricated information has dropped significantly.91 Since the first instances of social networking sites, the
internet has become increasingly pervasive and ubiquitous in the everyday lives of people. The fact that
people can now access the internet on their mobile phones virtually wherever they are allows the line
between the online and offline worlds to blur. It could be argued that this blurring has an effect on the type
of interactions people have offline, and the type of information people share on the internet because they
have a far greater ability to access the online world and the information it holds, whilst still participating
actively in offline life. The lack of segregation between online and offline identities makes it much more
difficult to maintain a fabricated identity because any falsehoods can be discovered much more easily.

Whether or not we are moving towards a world where the online and offline worlds operate nearly
seamlessly, it cannot be ignored that the internet is having a large effect on the way in which we perceive
others, filtering our interactions with them by giving us access to a range of information regarding that
person. With regards to the relationship between identity and music consumption, the increasing ubiquity
of the internet in everyday life means that presenting an interest in music generally, as well as in specific
bands, artists and songs will become easier, because information that was once hidden in a record
collection or an iTunes library can now be accessed at the press of a button.
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The limitations of this study must be acknowledged. The use of a convenience sample severely restricts
the ability of the study to say anything decisive, but it does indicate a general direction for further research
considerations. Following on from this dissertation more research is needed to explain the relationship
between a persons personality, opinions and interests and the extent to which a person relies on music for
identity construction. Further to this, it would be useful to explore the ways in which music consumption
technology and systems with the ability to project identity are evolving, and to use the framework of
identity construction and projection laid out to predict the ways in which people will interact with these
services.

In terms of real world applications of this information, it is valuable for companies to understand the ways
in which their customers view of themselves and others around them if formed, for the purposes of
customising marketing material to appeal to people on a more personal level. The nature of music as
something with the power to evoke an emotional response means that it can be incredibly powerful as a
tool for engaging consumers of other products through advertising. Through a more structured framework
for understanding a consumers identity, companies can deliver targeted advertising in a more personal
and effective manner.

In the earlier chapters, the construction of a persons self concept was covered, with reference to existing
theories on the extended self,92 possible selves,93 and private media consumption practices.94 Whilst the
latter half of the work focused primarily on the construction and projection of public identities, work is
needed to explore the connection between a persons self concept and the way in which they are perceived
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by others. It is possible that a person could use music consumption to aid in the development of their own
self concept, which then informs their music tastes, which are then expressed publicly to others. A further
study could explore the connection between self concept and publicly perceived identities, attempting to
develop a framework for the successful translation of the former to the latter.

This project has shown that identity and music consumption are linked, but highlights the pitfalls of
forgetting that identity is affected by factors other than music consumption. It also indicates that identity
construction for the purposes of presenting an identity to other people is a much more passive process than
was previously considered. The transition from physical media to downloaded media has made construction
of self concept through music a much more flexible and portable process, and has enhanced our ability to
shape our experience of the world around us. Finally the loss of the concept of ownership of music creates a
need to replace the concept of a record collection or archive. Facebook allows us to archive all of our
streamed music consumption and present it for other people to interpret. Identity and music remain
connected in the digital age, but the level of control we have over this connection is vastly increased. The
goth who likes the Spice Girls is now able to act on his music tastes and listen to Spiceworld in its entirety
whenever he likes, he just doesnt have to tell anyone.