Critically Analyzing Platform Interfaces: How Music-Streaming Platforms Frame Musical Experience

Abstract

This article identifies and contributes to a small but growing body of research that critically analyzes the user interfaces of digital platforms and apps. By examining how the interfaces of music-streaming platforms (MSPs) frame musical experience, we test claims that such platforms encourage “functional” and “mood-based” uses of music linked to problematic forms of power and subjectivity. While such framings are indeed evident in MSP interfaces, so too are other, rather different constructions of engagement with music. We argue that one significant power of MSPs is to incorporate diverse forms of musical experience into pervasive hybrids. Our approach advances interface analysis and research on the platformization of culture by illustrating the benefits of critical platform interface analysis through intra-domain platform interface analysis, and by offering general and music-specific taxonomies of digital platform interfaces.