Research Question

What do users need from Spotify during the 2024 U.S. Presidential Elections?

Role

Primary Researcher

Methodology

12

In-depth interviews

8

Ethnographies

4

Phases

Dec. 2024

Pitch deck summarizing primary research methodologies and findings, data trends, and strategic recommendations for Spotify

Background

My Qualitative Research Methods course tasked my group with studying how the 2024 U.S. Presidential Elections may influence customers’ relationship with a brand.

Based on this research, we provided recommendations for product development that addresses our findings.

About Spotify

Around 3 in 10 people in the U.S. use Spotify, making it the leading audio streaming service in the country.

Offering a diverse range of content like podcasts and audiobooks, there are many educational opportunities that Spotify can seize during the 2024 Presidential Elections. 

Research Goal

Understand how use of streaming services is impacted by U.S. politics cycle and whether it influences user satisfaction with the product.

Younger generations have diversified ways in which people receive and discuss news. In a political climate that has become increasingly polarized in media platforms, this research can help us understand whether and how audio streaming platforms should expand their initiatives around political education. 

Timeline

1.

Planning &
Preparation

  • Aligning research goals

  • Establishing recruitment criteria

  • Developing timeline and IDI guide.

Research:
Stage I

2.

  • Participant recruitment

  • Conducting individual in-depth interviews

  • Synthesizing IDI data

Research:
Stage II

3.

  • Develop ethnographic interview guide

  • Conducting ethnographic observations and interviews

  • Synthesizing compiled final data

4.

Pitching

  • Develop business strategies based on data

  • Pitch research insights and strategic recommendations

Recruitment Method

Convenience sampling leveraging team members’ personal networks.

The environment in which people use Spotify was also an important factor to us and we therefore relied on participants with physical proximity.

Recruitment Criteria

  • Vote-eligible U.S. citizens,

  • Premium and non-premium
    Spotify users,

  • Gen-Z, Millennial, and Gen-X.

We wanted to assess whether political ads were a potential educational opportunity. Additionally, we believed that age was an large factor to content preference.

Research Insights

  1. Premium users chose Spotify among its competitors for the product’s  
    usability, personalization abilities, and content discoverability. 

  2. Spotify is flexible and adapts to users’ daily routines, serving varying needs  depending on the time of day and location.

  3. Users are more open to political content on the platform when they are given choice among a variety of content.

Reflection

Sampling - Convenience sampling had given us repetitive results and therefore limited our user insights but were able to validate Spotify’s selling points. Future sampling should utilize the cluster method.

User Testing - We did not determine a task list for our participants to complete under our observation. Asking questions about routine without observation can result in social desirability bias.

Standardized Analysis - Our team did not agree on an analysis method before discussing our research insights. Whereas I analyzed content by coding my transcripts, my teammates used a broader thematic analysis. Future research should follow a uniform analysis method.