Från musikstreaming till social plattform: En kvalitativ studie av musiksmak i relation till identitet och deltagande på Spotify

The study aims to analyze how young users experience and use Spotify’s social features in relation to digital identity formation and participation. Through an analysis of users’ narratives about music taste, sharing, and interaction, the study highlights how identity and participation are shaped through everyday social practices on Spotify. Since the launch, Spotify has developed from a music streaming service, to a platform with increasingly social functionalities. This development raises questions about how music consumption becomes socially visible and how users negotiate identity, taste and participation in digital spaces. Therefore, the study examines Spotify as a space for digital identity construction and participation, with a particular focus on how the platform’s social features shape music taste and everyday social practices among users. Grounded in Bourdieu's concepts of taste, field, distinction and cultural capital, and Jenkins theories of participatory culture, the study frames these practices within a theoretical context. Empirically, the study is based on eight semi-structured interviews with Spotify-users aged 18-25. The material was analyzed using qualitative data analysis to identify recurring themes. The results show that music taste functions as a cultural expression through which users negotiate distinction, belonging, and self-presentation. Furthermore, Spotify’s social features enable participation through collective practices, fostering a sense of community. The results also indicate that experiences of shame and stigma are particularly prominent among the participant group, consisting primarily of media and communication studies students with highly educated parents. For this group, music taste appears to be closely linked to cultural capital, which contributes to heightened sensitivity regarding how taste is evaluated by others. The study concludes that Spotify operates as a social space where users can participate, but where social differences linked to taste and cultural capital are also maintained.