Children also like music

Abstract

Music recommender systems are increasingly present in our lives, and it is important to keep trying to improve recommendations in order to make them match the users preferences as well as possible. To achieve this, a vast amount of song and user data has to be analysed and taken into account. One of the approaches to do this, includes analyzing different audio features in order to find other songs with similar traits. The majority of the research and data in this sector is focused around adults, with little research surrounding children, which can result in worse recommendations for this demographic. In this paper, the focus is shifted towards children with the purpose of filling that gap. This is achieved by examining the prominence of specific song features among children of different age groups, expanding the knowledge on listening habits of a major demographic. More specifically, the research presented in this paper explores the prominence of various song features, aiming to find a connections between these features and the listening habits of children of specific age ranges from 8-18. This paper’s conclusions will offer potential enhancements, which can improve existing recommender systems by considering findings for their design. These findings will therefore allow for a more tailored experience for children of different age ranges, increasing overall user experience.