A Study of Relationship Between Music Streaming Behavior and Big Five Personality Traits of Spotify Users

Abstract

Personality Traits are important customer insights for business. Persuasive messages in advertising campaigns are more effective when customized to fit the customers' personalities. Researches suggested that music preference can reflect personality traits. However, those studies collected music listening history by using self-report of which the data obtained can be incomplete. This research aims to increase the completeness of music listening data by conducting a study on the three-month music streaming history of volunteers recorded automatically by Spotify. The eight audio features of each song (Acousticness, Danceability, Energy, Instrumentalness, Liveness, Speechiness, Valence, and Tempo) were extracted using Spotify's Application Programming Interface. The averages of these features calculated from songs in the music streaming history of each volunteer were used to represent his music preference. Pearson's Correlation method was employed to analyze relationships between the Big 5 Personality Traits and the music preference of 40 volunteers. The result shows a positive correlation between Openness-to-Experience and Liveness, a positive correlation between Extraversion and Acousticness, and a negative correlation between Extraversion with Energy and Speechiness. Agreeableness shows a positive correlation with Tempo. Instrumentalness is the only song feature that has a positive correlation with Neuroticism.