Kiite Cafe: A Web Service Enabling Users to Listen to the Same Song at the Same Moment While Reacting to the Song

Abstract

This paper describes a public web service called Kiite Cafe that lets users get together virtually to listen to music. When users listen to music on Kiite Cafe, their experiences are enhanced by two architectures: (i) visualization of each user's reactions, and (ii) selection of songs from users' favorite songs. These architectures enable users to feel social connection with others and the joy of introducing others to their favorite songs as if they were together listening to music in person. In addition, the architectures provide three user experiences: (1) motivation to react to played songs, (2) the opportunity to listen to a diverse range of songs, and (3) the opportunity to contribute as a curator. By analyzing the behavior logs of 2,399 Kiite Cafe users over a year, we quantitatively show that these user experiences can generate various effects (e.g., users react to a more diverse range of songs on Kiite Cafe than when listening alone). We also discuss how our proposed architectures can enrich music listening experiences with others.