From Vinyl to AI Music: Technology and the Transformation of Musical Experience

Technological innovation has continually reshaped the ways music is created, distributed, consumed, and experienced. From the era of vinyl records and analogue reproduction to digital streaming platforms, algorithmic recommendation systems, and artificial intelligence, technological transformations have profoundly altered musical practices, and the posibilites that create in the socialization of music. These developments raise important questions about creativity, authorship, cultural participation, labor, identity, and power in contemporary musical cultures.

This session invites researchers and scholars that examine the relationships between music, technology, and social change in different cultural contexts. We welcome research exploring the impact of recording technologies, digital platforms, social media, streaming services, datafication, algorithmic curation, virtual performances, and AI-generated music on musical production and consumption. Particular attention may be given to the shift in listening practices, new forms of audience engagement, transformations in music industries, creative labor, platform capitalism, and emerging debates concerning authenticity, ownership, and artistic agency.

The session also encourages historical perspectives that connect current technological developments with earlier transformations in musical experience, including the emergence of recorded sound, radio broadcasting, television, portable music devices, and digital media. Likewise, contributions addressing the resurgence of analogue formats, such as vinyl records and cassette cultures, are especially welcome.

By bringing together scholars from the sociology of music, culture, media, technology, and communication, this session aims to foster critical discussions on how technological change continues to redefine musical experience and reshape the social life of music in the 21st. Century.