Integrating Digital Traces into Mixed Methods Designs

An Application to the Study of Online Music Listening Using Survey, Interview and Streaming History Data Collected from the Same Individuals

Paper by Yann Renisio, Amélie Beaumont, Jean-Samuel Beuscart, Samuel Coavoux, Philippe Coulangeon, Robin Cura, Brenda Le Bigot, Manuel Moussallam, Camille Roth and Thomas Louail 
Revue française de sociologie, n° 2024/1, vol. 65, p. 129-160. Available on CAIRN - Preprint
 

In the field of study of cultural practices, the case of music consumption highlights both the duality of the empirical needs of the social sciences (of an observational nature, to know what people actually listen to; of a declarative nature, to know who these people are, what they say and think about different kinds of music), as well as the rarity of their combination in empirical research. 

The authors present a mixed methods study design that integrates individual-level traces of online content consumption and survey and interview data, collected from a sample of people. They  provide a concrete illustration for the case of music listening on streaming platforms, and show that survey respondents and in-person solicited users do not stream the same music. 

The mixed data collected make it feasible to infer the social properties of non-respondents, and hence to assess bias in studies based exclusively on self-reported survey data. They provide empirical evidence that unlimited access to all kinds of recorded music on platforms does not blur the social boundaries between repertoires across respondents. The artists have distinct audiences whose differences are both related to generation, gender, and educational attainment.