Lost in Co-curation: Uncomfortable Interactions and the Role of Communication in Collaborative Music Playlists

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Online tools enable users to co-create artifacts remotely. Yet, creative collaborations can also occur for the social process of collaborating itself, for which measures of success and engagement expectations can be more ambiguous, and individuals’ dedication and social dynamics more important. Co-curation of music in collaborative playlists (CPs) is one example of creative collaboration that fulfills both roles, and therefore can have more subtleties in their interactions. We conducted two studies using online surveys to understand perceived comfort and hesitation to the social dynamics embedded in CPs. Differences in collaborators’ ownership perceptions toward CPs and their comfort in interacting with these CPs emerged. We also found varying desire for communication, dependent upon the action and perceived ownership (of CP and songs), with more users expecting greater comfort with a communication channel. From these results, we present four design considerations for more positive and engaged experiences for creative online co-curation.