Shifting music culture in the age of streaming

This thesis investigates why music streaming services are so popular, beyond their affordability, and the ways in which streaming is shifting music culture. Certain aspects of listening culture which we tend to understand as originating from streaming services, specifically the growth of the single and decline of the album, the growth of the personal playlist, and certain music discovery practices, actually originated from older forms of music technology. Streaming services have combined several previously separate sources of music knowledge into one virtual space, pushing forward never before seen levels of personalization and socialization. Streaming revolutionizes by bringing all these means of engaging with music culture into one space, making this process of social assimilation via music easier than it has ever been.