Enhancing Users’ Attachment via Social Activities in Paid Music Platforms: A Quantitative Research

Paid music platforms are gaining popularity in Mainland China, which continuously competing for paid subscribers. In order to survive from the fierce competition, some platforms have implemented functions that promoting user social behavior to retain paid subscribers. However, we know little about the effectiveness of stimulating social activities on the basis of providing music in paid music platforms. Drawing on attachment theory, this study seeks to explore the impacts of social factors (social participation, social relationship, and membership) on user attachment and behavioral intentions (willingness to recommend and willingness to continuously subscribe). Data was crawled from NetEase Cloud Music, a leading Chinese paid music platform, including number of followers, number of followings, number of likes, and so on. Results of the linear-regression analysis reveal that social participation, social relationship, and membership positively affect user attachment, which in turn positively influences users’ willingness to recommend and willingness to continuously sub-scribe. Implications for theory and practice have been discussed.