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introduction.md

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Introduction

As a passionate music listener myself I know a bit about the state of music streaming: It is a field that has gained much of comfort over the last couple of years. The available selection of music grew and grew, the interfaces got nicer and nicer, more and more end devices could be used but regarding privacy there was hardly any development - even a regression. Currently it is the norm to enjoy music under the all seeing eye of the service provider even when beeing allowed to use ones own music.

Digital music listening started on ones own computer. Users had to manually arrange their music into playlists or at least group their music into folders if they wanted to have a sensible experience over the course of a few hours. After a while sharing capabilites opened up and users where able to broaden their libraries with the help of their friends or stangers. Still only individual files or groups of files could be shared. The ordering still remained with the user.

Since the dawn of online music streaming things got easier: Users now could rely on hugh databases to choose their music from. Business models range from digital versions of the old "preview-then-buy" over freemium models to radio-like advert-based streaming offerings. Users can now share the way they listen to music with their friends and provide each other insight into the vast array of genres and sub-genres.

In this paper I want to deepen my understanding of the field and try to find the possible sweet spot between comfort and privacy.