The State of Online Music Stores

A feature and content analysis of online music stores and a review of music information-seeking behavior.

Why Analyze Online Music Stores? In addition to their catalogue, online music

stores succeed and fail by supporting users’ information-seeking behaviors.

Music stores in general depend on discovery of new materials as well as fast access to known items to increase sales.

Online music stores must support the broadest range of users to increase their market share and profit.

Literature on Music Information- Seeking Behavior Information needs are usually defined

with bibliographic information. (Downie & Cunningham 2002; Cunningham et al. 2003; Bainbridge et. al. 2003; Lee & Downie, 2004)

“People search for music as an auditory experience” (Lee & Downie, 2004). (Downie & Cunningham, 2002; Cunningham et al., 2003)

Contextual Information is important. (Downie & Cunningham, 2002; Lee & Downie, 2003)

Relational Information is important. (Downie & Cunningham, 2002; Lee & Downie, 2004)

Literature on Music Information- Seeking Behavior Music information-seeking is social.

(Cunningham et al. 2003; Lee & Downie, 2004)

Music information-seekers are less likely to consult an ‘expert’ than a friend. (Cunningham et al., 2003; Lee & Downie, 2004)

Literature on Music Information- Seeking Behavior Music information needs are often

roughly defined. (Cunningham et al., 2003; Bainbridge et al., 2003; Kim & Belkin, 2002)

Browsing is a significant activity. (Cunningham et al., 2003)

Searching and Browsing are interleaved. (Cunningham et al., 2003)

Observations Based on the Literature Population and environment effect

information-seeking activities and desired outcomes.

Music information needs are ill defined and MIR systems (i.e. music stores & music digital libraries must support exploratory search)

The Sample

Requests for site recommendations were sent out to three music oriented listservs.– I received approximately 15 response yielding 23

unique sites.

Submitted sites were reviewed and selected in an attempt to represent the breadth of features.– 20 out of 23 sites were included in the analysis

Method: Pre-analysis Sites were briefly explored to determine the

breadth of features available.– Browsing, Searching– Created accounts when available– Looked for services

Features were listed for creation of analysis matrix.

Features in matrix assigned to four categories:

1. Contextual Information2. Relational Information3. Persistent interactivity4. Information-seeking activity

Method: Data Collection

Binary: Does site have a feature?– Ex: Search

Numeric: How many/How often.– Ex: how many items displayed on the front

page? Loose observations of site.

– Ex. The site appears to want people to only browse.

Method: Data Analysis

Compared quantitative data collected.

Findings: Site Descriptions

Most of the sites are built using html– 1/5 of sites with audio surrogates used an

embedded player build with flash.– 21% used Flash; 30% used RA; 16% used Mp3;

35% used no audio. 21% had “collections” 47% sell other stuff Avg. 52 items on front page

– About1/3 of sites had no items– 10% had >300

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Catalogue #Record Label

Review/Description

Album Cover

BarcodeRelease Date

LyricsLanguage

country

audio surrogate

Percent of Sites

Catalogue # Record Label Review/Description Album Cover Barcode Release Date Lyrics Language Country audio surragate

Contextual Information

The Siteshttp://www.turntablelab.comhttp://www.boomkat.comhttp://www.bleep.comhttp://karmadownload.comhttp://www.cduniverse.comhttp://forcedexposure.comhttp://www.midheaven.com/front.htmlhttp://www.juno.co.ukhttp://www.vibrantsound.com/music/home.phphttp://www.breakbeatscience.comhttp://www.chemical-records.comhttp://www.redeyerecords.co.ukhttp://www.dustygroove.comhttp://planetxusa.comhttp://www.othermusic.comwww.deepfixrecords.comwww.primalrecords.comwww.htfr.combeatport.com

Findings: Relational Info.

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70

Genre Artist Label More like this . ..

People whobought . . .

Pecentage of Sites

Findings: Social Info-Seeking

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5

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15

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25

30

35

User reviews/ratings Forums People who bought . . . Top Sellers Charts

Findings: Activity Support

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90

Search: fullrecord

search:artist

search:label

search:title browse byrelease date

browse bynew arrival

browse byartist

browse bylabel

browse bygenre

Percent of Sites

Findings: Int. Persistence

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10

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50

60

70

Account Preferences byaccount

Wishlist Persistant RSS Newsletter

How the Sites Measure Up

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1

TurntableLab

BoomkatBleep.com

Karmadownload

CD Universe

Forced exposure

MidhavenJuno.co.uk

VibrantSoundbreakbeatsciencechemical records

redeyerecordsdusty grooveplanet x usaother music

www.deepfixrecords.comwww.primalrecords.com

www.htfr.combeatport.com

Context Relation Activity Social Persistance

What Online Music Stores should Learn from the Literature Provide better relational data Improve social aspects of sites

What the Researchers can Learn from Online music stores

Some of the most often recommended sites have some of the worst scores on relational information, interactivity persistence, or social support.

These sites could serve as stimulous materials for experiments and user studies.

Limitations

This study only tells us what the population of online music stores looks like.– We need measures of “success” to make

inferences about value of features.• In this case we should control for usability,

catalogue and price competitiveness.

What’s Next

Usability Study Operationalize these variables for an

experimental study Build a better system!