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UX Corner
Jacob and Nick are graduate students in the Research in User eXperience (RUX) Lab in the Department of Human Factors and Behavioral Neurobiology. RUX investigates the usability and user experience of technology in our everyday world. This is a regular column that explores different technologies typically used by Embry-Riddle students.
Stream On! Popular Music Streaming Apps Jacob Guliuzo and Nicholas Reuss Graduate Researchers What service do you use to stream music? Spotify? Pandora? Apple Music? In a recent survey of over 100 ERAU students, we found that over 60% of students reported that they listened to a music streaming service daily and over 30% listened several times a week. Many students mentioned using several different streaming services, but the most popular choices were Spotify and Apple Music, followed by Pandora and others. The question remains, why do students prefer these services over others? Nearly half of the students reported that ease of use was a primary reason why they used a particular service. Cost, the popularity of the service, and using what their friends' use were also reported to be important factors.
Image Courtesy: Jacob Guliuzo
Image Courtesy: Nicholas Reuss
Music streaming services used by the surveyed students.
To Pay or Not to Pay? Most of these music streaming services have a paid and a free version, but is the extra fee worth it? Almost two-thirds of the students reported that they used the paid version of their preferred service over the free version. The most popular reasons for this were the ability to download music, the allowance to skip songs an unlimited number of times, the elimination of advertisements, and the ability to make your playlist. While the ability to download music is a premium feature offered by all services, only Spotify has bundling options included with its premium service. Spotify provides a bundle which includes Hulu and Showtime for students enrolled in any type of educational program. While most of these services cost around $9.99 a month, only Apple Music and Spotify have student discounts which are cheaper (only $4.99).
Image Courtesy: Nicholas Reuss
Reasons why students pay for premium streaming services.
What Features Matter? What features did students look for and why? The highest three ranked features were music quality, music availability, and the ability to download music (offline play). The three features that ranked the lowest were the platform for streaming, bundling options, and social functionality. Even though bundling options seem to influence what service students may purchase, other features such as the ability to download songs, music quality, and overall music availability were ranked as more important. Spotify was the only application with the bundling of other apps and services. Music availability often differs between streaming services because they have to negotiate to bring artists to their site. This can be a complicated process, and many services opt not to include artists' music instead of negotiating with them.
Image Courtesy: Jacob Guliuzo
Conclusion Overall, we found that students reported that they liked their preferred service because of how easy it is to use and how much it costs. Students don't care as much about reviews; they want an easy to use service that gives them the best music at the lowest price. Most students said Spotify was that service. Its features and price point combined with the bundled video streaming services make it a deal that is better than the others. “[Spotify is] cheap, easy to use, and has a lot of music options," one student noted.
Image Courtesy: Nicholas Reuss
Top features ranked by the surveyed students.
The ability to download songs is a critical feature that is considered by some students when picking a music streaming service. As one student commented “I drive long-distance a lot, and I sometimes lose service in my car. Amazon Music lets me download music so I can continue to listen to music without service. It also updates with newest albums very quickly.” The ability to have the latest music available was reported to be a key feature. “Spotify makes it easier for me to listen to what I know I like. Radio and some other streaming services do not always have what I want when I want it. And the fact that there are no ads and has a student discount on premium are also pluses”, reported one student.
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