Listening Together while Apart: Intergenerational Music Listening

Collaborative music listening can support intergenerational connectedness. We conducted an environmental scan of video conferencing and music listening platforms and cognitive walkthroughs to investigate how these platforms can support collaborative music listening and conversation between a grandparent and teen grandchild. Our results indicate that common video conferencing platforms not only lack a convenient way to share music, but typically block audio from music listening apps played on the same device, preventing sharing. Further, while music streaming platforms enable connected friends to share songs and others’ playlists, they do not provide a means for smooth synchronous conversing about the music. Thus, this highlights opportunities for technology improvement to support intergenerational relationships by enabling distributed, intergenerational co-listening of music.