Exploration of new music experience scenarios empowered by VR technology from perspective of consumption psychology

With the rapid advancement of virtual reality technology, VR-based music experience scenarios have emerged as a novel consumption format, reshaping the contemporary music industry. Grounded in the Stimulus–Organism–Response (S-O-R) framework and the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), this study employed a mixed-methods design integrating a questionnaire survey (n = 450), in-depth interviews (n = 30), and VR experience experiments (n = 20) to examine consumer psychological mechanisms in VR music contexts. Results indicate that virtual environment perception influences consumer psychology through spatial presence, sensory stimulation intensity, and aesthetic quality, with sensory stimulation exhibiting an inverted U-shaped relationship with emotional arousal. Virtual social presence significantly affects consumption decisions, partially mediated by group belongingness and moderated by social comparison tendency and identity recognition. Technology acceptance demonstrates a “high usefulness–low ease-of-use” pattern, while immersive experience quality mediates the relationship between technological features and user satisfaction. Technical anxiety negatively moderates the link between perceived value and usage intention, with operational training reducing anxiety levels by 23.4%. The findings reveal distinctive psychological characteristics of VR music consumption—strong immersion, social embeddedness, personalization, and aesthetic orientation—providing theoretical insights and practical implications for VR product design, marketing strategy, and digital transformation within the music industry.