What it’s Worth: Preferences and Expectations of Music Listeners in the Evaluation of Material Affordances

This dissertation examines the relationship between the materiality of cultural objects and consumption practices. Over the course of three chapters, I utilize data gathered from semi-structured interviews with heavy consumers of music to demonstrate that the shift from analog to digital technologies has shaped how everyday consumers comprehend, evaluate, and appreciate music platforms and services. Chapter one proposes a revision to the sociological understanding of the perception of cultural objects by analyzing consumers’ evaluation of the capabilities of music listening technologies. I find that music listeners draw on their knowledge of the way digital technologies should function to assess whether music services adhere to their expectations, explaining their consumption choices. This chapter demonstrates that the comprehension of material qualities necessitates an evaluation of their action possibilities. Chapter two takes the theoretical framework developed in Chapter one to analyze how the materiality of music technologies impacts how digital pirates determine the worth of music goods and services. I find that copyright infringers’ perception of the capabilities of music technologies informs how qualities are identified and interpreted, shaping how they attribute value to both music content and price. This chapter demonstrates how the materiality of music technologies shapes evaluative processes, explaining the rise and fall of music piracy. Chapter three analyzes the relationship between the material qualities of music formats and the appreciation of music to explain the resurgence of vinyl in recent decades. Specifically, I find that music listeners increasingly turn to vinyl because it provides a more satisfying experience of music relative to the distractions and disruptions of digital streaming. This chapter empirically demonstrates that the physical materiality of vinyl increases the likelihood of consumers achieving an aesthetic experience. Chapters one-three of this dissertation are presented as stand-alone articles.

Department dc:contributor.department

Sociology

Year dc:date.issued

2025

Author dc:creator

• Stewart, Lance Nicolas

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Leschziner, Vanina

• Affordance Theory
• Cultural Sociology
• Material Culture Studies
• Materiality
• Pragmatism
• Sociology of Culture

Statement dc:rights

• Attribution 4.0 International

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1807/150011

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:utoronto.scholaris.ca:1807/150011