Music 364

Data-Driven Research in Music Cognition

CCRMA, Stanford University

Homework 2

Written deliverables for all three parts are due in Canvas by 9am, Friday January 27.

Part A: Futurehit.DNA

Read Futurehit.DNA and provide written answers to the following questions.
  1. In one paragraph, summarize the socioeconomic drivers of technological advances in music production and distribution from the invention of the Edison cylinder through 2008. Assess the resulting impact on attributes of popular music over time. Describe the impact on consumer choice over time.
  2. Describe a "zero play". Which technologies and listening settings involve zero plays? Which do not? How might the zero-play setting impact the composition of a pop song?
  3. What is the benefit of having a false or incomplete ending to your song? [Extra credit] Can you think of a song not mentioned in the book that uses this technique?
  4. Discuss the importance of repetition—both for full songs and with regard to structural elements within a song.
  5. Much has changed regarding technology and music consumption since Futurehit.DNA was published in 2009.
    1. Describe the relevant new services and technologies that have emerged since 2009.
    2. Briefly assess recent changes in your choice of 5 the following areas:
      1. Importance and power of radio (broadly defined) for music distribution.
      2. Prominence of zero plays.
      3. Role of social media.
      4. Prominence of digital versus physical media.
      5. Group versus individual music-listening settings.
      6. Album versus singles focus.
      7. Music recommendations and the long tail.
      8. Self-released music versus the need for a record label.
      9. Measuring success.
    3. Have any of the author's predictions come true between 2009 and now? Was there anything he did not foresee?

Part B: Early project ideas

By now you should be thinking about potential project ideas. Here you will take one idea and write an early-stage proposal around it. You are not required to follow through with the project idea you propose here (and in fact this exercise is intended partly to help you assess whether your idea is feasible); however, for now you should treat the current idea as if you will act upon it.
  1. Write 2-3 paragraphs describing your current project idea. What motivated your idea? What types of data might you use to approach this question? How available are the datasets that you will need? What tools/software would you use to analyze the data? What exactly do you hope to show? Are you fairly certain that your proposed topic and approach are novel? What challenges do you foresee?
  2. Submit citations of at least five references from the research field that seem relevant to your project idea. You can include links to online articles (e.g., Billboard articles, blog posts) as well, but at least five must be published research papers. No need to have read the papers in detail – skimming abstracts is fine for now.
  3. (Optional) If you have other ideas you are considering, feel free to briefly write about them as well.

Part C: Lab 1

Lab 1 is an R tutorial focused on Billboard and Shazam charts. There is a written portion to the lab.
  • Files for the lab (including instructions and questions to be answered in your writeup) are located in Canvas/Files/Labs/Lab 1 (HW2).
  • The Shazam charts themselves are located in Canvas/Files/Datasets/Shazam Historical Charts 2013.

Deliverables

Submit your written responses to all three sections to Canvas by 9am, Friday January 27.