Unveiling the Impact of Musical Factors in Judging a Songon First Listen: Insights from a User Survey
Kosetsu Tsukuda

Tomoyasu Nakano

Masahiro Hamasaki

Masataka Goto

National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST)

Q.

When a user listens to a song for the first time,
what musical factors influence the user’s decision
to like or dislike the song, and to what extent?

Answer this question by conducting
an online user survey with 302 subjects
Publicly available survey results on GitHub:

1. Importance distributions of musical factors / criteria for liking or disliking a songx-axis: number of subjects

FactorTop criterion for “like”
Top criterion for “dislike”
MelodyEasy to remember
Too loudSinging voice Specific type (beautiful, soft)
Feels uncomfortable
RhythmGroovyRhythm not to my liking
LyricsSympathetic
Unclear meaning
Mood
CheerfulGloomy
Tempo
Fast
Slow
Harmony
Feels comfortable
Feels uncomfortable
Sentiment
Positive
Negative
Instruments
Include specific instruments
Too loud
Danceability Body moves naturally to music
Not groovy

Melody and singing voice are significantly more important than others

The criteria can be applied to explainable recommendation

2. Influence of personality traits measured by Big Five Inventory (BFI)
TraitOpenness
Conscientiousness
Extraversion
Agreeableness
Neuroticism

Spearman’s rank correlations between personality traits and musical factor importance (N=302)
Melody0.127*
0.076
0.062
0.025
0.003

Singing voice
0.135*
0.128*
0.130*
0.123*
0.010

Rhythm0.155**
0.062
0.172**
0.048-0.081

Lyrics0.177**
0.031
0.175**
0.088
0.036

Mood
0.107
0.127*
0.098
0.158**-0.025Tempo
0.109
0.128*
0.114*
0.029-0.004

Harmony0.255***
0.125*
0.254***
0.021-0.142*

Sentiment
0.050
0.119*
0.107
0.060
0.109

Instruments
0.157**
0.028
0.151**
0.049-0.072Danceability
0.151**
0.013
0.219***
0.065-0.120* People with high openness have more diverse criteria for judging whether a song fits their taste Recommend songs based on the relationships between genres and traits, without explicitly asking factor importance

3. Influence of musical sophistication (e.g., dance experience and frequency of karaoke)
Sophistication
InstrumentExp
DanceExp
NoticeBeat
NoticeTune
ListenMusic
ListenNew
ViewLyrics
Karaoke
AttendEventSpearman’s rank correlations between musical sophistication and musical factor importance (N=302)
Melody0.100-0.0410.228***
0.272***
0.041
0.003
0.001
0.085
-0.038Singing voice
0.061
0.039
0.228***
0.231***
0.054
0.107
0.085
0.087
0.037

Rhythm-0.019-0.0470.126*
0.099
0.111
0.152**
0.118*
0.005-0.023

Lyrics0.108
0.126*
0.082
0.088
0.141*
0.152**
0.243***
0.210***0.200***

Mood
0.037
0.030
0.107
0.121*
0.135*
0.112
0.120*
0.154**
0.004

Tempo
-0.099-0.024
0.073
0.039
0.101
0.194***
0.147*-0.0150.016

Harmony0.134*
0.044
0.302***
0.276***
0.078
0.115*
0.136*
0.057
0.039

Sentiment
0.093
0.098
0.205***
0.167**
0.108
0.101
0.128*
0.129*-0.005

Instruments
0.091-0.0050.147*
0.078
0.051
0.126*
0.101-0.0330.088

Danceability
0.101
0.341***
0.072
0.001
0.090
0.169**
0.110
0.081
0.179**

 Not only obvious results but also unexpected results (e.g., between ListenNew and lyrics, and between ListenNew and danceability)
 On a music streaming service, the importance of each factor to a user can be estimated from ListenMusic, ListenNew, and ViewLyrics

4. Possible functions on music streaming services based on musical factors
Registration of factor importance
Not
HardlySomewhat
Veryimportant important important Important important

MelodyRhythmAngel Baby / Betty

SHAKE / MAPSAngel Baby / Betty

Lyrics4Lyrics

2.7

Melody2

Melody4.3-Mood

3.1

Danceability

4.5

Mood
Danceability

4

If danceability is an important factor for a user,songs by “Betty” can be sorted and displayedin order of the averaged ratings for danceability

Lyrics Eternal loveSentiment Positive

Instruments Piano Danceability 1.3 / 5...

When a user listens to a song, the service
can recommend songs that have various
tempos and similar lyrics to the song

Presentation of factor information

EVERYONE’S evaluations

...

...

Tempo

YOUR evaluations...

Lyrics

Evaluation of songs by factors

Singing voice Female Tempo 80 BPMIf a user prefers slow-tempo songs
with piano, she can efficiently
check newly released songs