Mood metadata on Chinese music websites: an exploratory study with user feedback
| Pages | 864-879 |
| Date | 08 October 2018 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/OIR-01-2017-0023 |
| Published date | 08 October 2018 |
| Author | Xiao Hu,Christy W.L. Cheong,Siwei Zhang,J. Stephen Downie |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Information behaviour & retrieval,Collection building & management,Bibliometrics,Databases,Information & knowledge management,Information & communications technology,Internet,Records management & preservation,Document management |
Mood metadata on Chinese music
websites: an exploratory study
with user feedback
Xiao Hu
Shenzhen Institute of Research and Innovation, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Christy W.L. Cheong
Macao Polytechnic Institute, Macao, China
Siwei Zhang
Faculty of Education, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, and
J. Stephen Downie
School of Information Sciences, University of Illinois,
Champaign, Illinois, USA
Abstract
Purpose –Music mood is an important metadata type on online music repositories and stream music
services worldwide. Many existing studies on mood metadata have focused on music websites and services in
the Western world to the exclusion of those serving users in other cultures. The purpose of this paper is to
bridge this gap by exploring mood labels on influential Chinese music websites.
Design/methodology/approach –Mood labels and the associated song titles were collected from six
Chinese music websites, and analyzed in relation to mood models and findings in the literature. An online
music listening test was conducted to solicit users’feedback on the mood labels on two popular Chinese music
websites. Mood label selections on 30 songs from 64 Chinese listeners were collected and compared to those
given by the two websites.
Findings –Mood labels, although extensively employed on Chinese music websites, may be insufficient in
meeting listeners’needs. More mood labels of high arousal semantics are needed. Song languages and user
familiarity to the songs show influence on users’selection of mood labels given by the websites.
Practical implications –Suggestions are proposed for future development of mood metadata and
mood-enabled user interfaces in the context of global online music access.
Originality/value –This paper provides insights on understanding the mood metadata on Chinese music
websites and uniquely contributes to existing knowledge of culturally diversified music access.
Keywords Chinese music website, Global music access,Mood metadata, Music mood, Online musicaccess,
Online music repositories
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
With the increasing popularity of digital music, online music services and music websites
have become oneof the dominant resources for people to seekand consume music information
(Hu, Lee and Wong, 2014). Among the various metadata types that describe music, mood[1]
has been widely used in many music repositories, online music streaming services
and music websites including Spotify, Pandora, Last.fm, Allmusic.com (hereafter Allmusic)
and APMmusic.com ( hereafter APM) ( Hu, 2010; Lee and Wa terman, 2012; Lee a nd
Price, 2016). The affective aspect of music is arguably the most important reason people
engage with music (Juslin and Laukka, 2004). There are two mood-related concepts
in the literature:one is the mood expressed by music pieceswhich is often used to describe the
music; the other is thelisteners’internal mood arousedby music which can be a goal of music
Online Information Review
Vol. 42 No. 6, 2018
pp. 864-879
© Emerald PublishingLimited
1468-4527
DOI 10.1108/OIR-01-2017-0023
Received 29 January 2017
Revised 22 May 2017
13 November 2017
Accepted 12 December 2017
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/1468-4527.htm
This study is partially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China: 61703357 and a
Seed Research Fund from the University of Hong Kong. The authors thanks Xueming Ann Wang for
her assistance in collecting part of the data.
864
OIR
42,6
listening (Çano et al., 2017). This study focuses on the former, with the purpose being to
investigate the efficacy of mood labels on Chinese music websites in describing music
information and in helping users access and select music of certain mood.
Music mood is an obvious criterion by which listeners can organize their personal music
collections (Hagen, 2015), but it can be highly subjective, rendering it an intriguing and
challenging concept in music information studies (e.g. Lamere, 2008; Yang and Chen, 2012).
Although it is increasingly acknowledged that music mood is culturally, linguistically and
socially sensitive (Singhi and Brown, 2014), most studies to date have focused on Western
music, Western music websites and Western listeners (Hu and Downie, 2007; Serra, 2011;
Lee et al., 2012). In the literature, there is a lack of understanding on how music mood is used
on non-Western music websites. This Western-centric research trajectory has been criticized
in recent years, as music consumption has become increasingly globalized and geographic
and cultural boundaries have blurred (Serra, 2011; Xu et al., 2015; Hu and Lee, 2016).
This study contributes to the literature on culturally diversifiedonline music access from a
Chinese perspective, which is of theoretical and practical importance not only because of the
large listener population China possesses (IFPI, 2015) but also because of the many unique
features of Chinese music (Hu and Lee, 2016). While havi ng a long history and a tradition
remarkablydifferent from Westernmusic (Fung, 2013), Chinese musicis heavily influenced by
Western pop culture, which was introduced to the Chinese population following the country’s
economic reformand the Chinese Government’s“OpenDoor Policy”nearly four decades ago.
As one of the first attempts to examine mood metadata on Chinese music websites,
this study is exploratory in nature, aiming to further our understanding of three
research questions:
RQ1. Which mood labels are used on major Chinese music websites?
RQ2. To what extent do Chinese listeners agree with the mood labels provided by
the websites?
RQ3. Are mood labeling patterns on major Chinese websites varied by song language
(i.e. Chinese songs vs English songs)?
While answersto the first question help obtaina general picture of mood metadataof music in
a Chinese context, the second aims to evaluate whether the mood labels currently used are
sufficient in supporting users to access online music by mood. Studies on mood metadata on
Western online music services have identified a vocabulary gap between mood labels or
taxonomies given by music information services and those of the users (Hu, 2010; Lee et al.,
2012). The vocabulary gap has been well recognized in information science (Mai, 2011;
Wichowski, 2009;Noruzi, 2006) and can be even wider onmusic mood, due to the subjectivity
and cultural dependence of music mood perception (Lee and Hu, 2014; Singhi and Brown,
2014; Egermann et al., 2015). As Chinese listeners also consume a significant amount of
Western music (IFPI, 2015), the third question attempts to investigate whether songs in a
foreign language would have different patterns of user feedback with regards to mood
labeling and thus should be treated differently on the music websites. Findingsof this study
can shed light on the current use of mood metadata on Chinese music websites and provide
insights to improve listener access. They can also benefit future research on music mood of
other non-Western music and cross-cultural music access in the online environment.
Related work
Studies on music metadata in online music repositories and services
Traditionally, music digital libraries and repositories use bibliographic metadata (e.g. title,
composer, singer, language) to organize music materials. In the last decade, due to
increasing user demands, music websites and service providers have started to develop
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Mood
metadata on
Chinese music
websites
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