This article builds on research about gender in music practice, concerned with skewed musical canons, ratios and quotas of gender representation, unfair treatment and power dynamics, and the exclusionary enmeshment with music technologies. The aim is to critically discuss what ‘gender’ is understood to be, how it has been studied and how gendered power has been challenged, in order to suggest new routes for research on gender and music practice. While we count ourselves among the scholars working in the field and critically investigate our own work as well as that of others, the article addresses some additional concerns to those of previous studies by examining how gender is ontologically constructed in these studies, how intersectional approaches can enrich analyses of gender in music practice and how the material dimensions of music practice can be actively addressed. The conclusions outline suggestions for broadening research in gender and music practice.

Spotify is self-reporting to have 232 million monthly active users in July 2019, including 108 million paying subscribers. Often naturalized by listeners as a mere window into great collections of music, Spotify is an intricate network of music recommendations governed by algorithms, displayed as a visual interface of photos, text, clickable links, and graphics. With the aim to analyze how three Spotify functions, related artists, discover, and browse, organize and represent gender while organizing and representing music Spotify is here investigated through empirical material collected in qualitative online ethnographic studies during 2013–2015. The article problematizes how music is organized in algorithmic culture and uncovers gendering that can ensue as a result of the service’s recommendation algorithms: creating closer circles for music consumption, and organizing music by similarities in genre and gender.

With the internet and digital media technology increasingly central to practices around music, this shift is often seen as contributing to a networked music use characterized by individualism. Drawing on a focus group study with young adults in Stockholm and Moscow, this article argues, however, that digital music use today is shaped by discourses of difference, with gender a significant factor both in constructions of the ideal music and technology user, and in terms of musical influence and guidance. Taking into account contemporary research on new media technology, as well as feminist studies of technology and music, the article questions ideas of a neutral user of new music technologies, showing how the gendering of music and media technology can be seen as simultaneously context-bound and cutting across geographies.

The importance of understanding gender, space and mobility as co-constructed in public space has been emphasized by feminist researchers (Massey 2005; Hanson 2010). And within feminist theory materiality, affect and emotions have been de-scribed as central for experienced subjectivity (Ahmed 2012). Music listening while moving through public space has previously been studied as a way of creat-ing a private auditory bubble for the individual (Bull 2000; Cahir & Werner 2013) and in this article feminist theory on emotion (Ahmed 2010) and space (Massey 2005) is employed in order to understand mobile music streaming. More specifi-cally it discusses what can happen when mobile media technology is used to listen to music in public space and it investigates the interconnectedness of bodies, mu-sic, technology and space. The article is based on autoethnographic material of mobile music streaming in public and concludes that a forward movement shaped by happiness is one desired result of mobile music streaming. The positive value of ‘forward’ is critically examined with feminist theory and the failed music lis-tening moments are discussed in terms of emotion and space.

The cross-cultural study ”Music in the Digital Age”  focuses on the impact of the Internet on music in everyday life. This article presents the first results from the Russian segment of the study: we look into how the growing Internet access affects the patterns of music-related practices in Russia.  Music is now ubiquitous in the everyday life of young people. It is strongly incorporated in the daily routine, and it is primarily associated with mood regulation and adaption to urban environments. Predictably, the effects of broad access to music result in the integration of online and offline-activities related to music. However, we also observe a contrast of the utilitarian effects of wide access, and the growing demand for materiality and privacy in music.