Introduction: How Digital Platforms are Changing Music

To understand how music changes in the digital age, it is important to take a less romantic, less assumption-loaded perspective and instead adopt a different view that recognizes music not only as an aesthetic object to be contemplated but as a social practice. In this introductory chapter we provide the reader with a multidimensional answer to the question of how music is changing in the age of digital platforms, by outlining the main arguments of this book. We propose a comprehensive view that includes a historical reconstruction of the evolution of digital music, a detailed analysis of how digital platforms work, an in-depth examination of the mechanisms behind the technologies that make them function, a thoughtful consideration of music listeners’ experiences, and a glimpse of the further transformations that await us in the near future.