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Online music communities have been developing rapidly in the world. Users can listen to their favorite music, post their comments and interact with music authors and other members in music communities. They have formed different groups based on their common interests in music, such as classic music, popular music and rock and roll music. They may also develop the fan group on a singer. The frequent interactions may help create resonance, strengthen the mutual relationship and develop their identification with the community, such as membership, sense of belongingness and attachment, which may facilitate their continuance. In the past, users mainly searched for their interested music and enjoyed it in online music communities. With the development of internet technologies, users can conduct extensive interactions with other members and music authors in online music communities. They may also release the music produced by themselves in the communities. On the other hand, communities can recommend the relevant music to users based on their interests and tastes. According to a recent report, about 729 million of internet users have adopted online music, accounting for 70.7% of the internet population in China (CNNIC, 2022). Attracted by the great market, many firms have developed their music products and built online music communities. Among them, Spotify and Tencent music have achieved great success, both of which were listed in the New York stock market. Another reputable online music community, Netease Yun music, has also been listed in the Hong Kong stock market. However, intense competition exists among online music communities. Communities try to expand the user base in order to achieve competitive advantage. For users, they can easily switch from a music community to an alternative one. Thus, it is necessary for online music communities to retain users and facilitate their continuance usage.
Previous research has examined user behaviour in various communities, such as health community (Meng et al., 2021; Mirzaei and Esmaeilzadeh, 2021), social commerce community (Zhang et al., 2018a), and game community (Ma et al., 2019; Tsai and Hung, 2019). Factors such as identification and trust are found to affect users’ continuance intention (Tsai and Hung, 2019). However, it has seldom examined user behaviour in online music communities, which represent an emerging community. Compared to other types of community, online music communities have the characteristics such as entertainment, social interaction centering on music, and emotional experience. Thus, it is necessary to consider these characteristics when examining online music community users’ continuance.