When live music paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, people looked for other opportunities to engage with music. The present case study explored a group of cycling enthusiasts who engaged in a collaborative playlist-making activity during COVID-19, called “ Song of the Day .” Our two research questions asked: (1) What does the group’s collaborative playlisting process entail? and (2) What were the outcomes of engaging in collaborative playlist-making during the COVID-19 pandemic? Using an exploratory, qualitative approach, we conducted semi-structured interviews with group members ( N = 4 Australian residents; M age = 63). Five overarching themes were identified via Thematic Analysis: inspiration and ongoing participation, promoting emotional well-being, bonding, shared and expanded musical engagement, and song selection. Although initially motivated by a simple premise of sharing one song a day to lighten the mood and keep in touch during lockdowns, the playlisting activity guidelines evolved over time. A shift to selecting songs that met stated thematic parameters made the activity challenging and elicited competitiveness and conversation, which fostered continued participation and deepened existing friendships. Engaging in this form of collaborative playlisting sparked enjoyment and nostalgia, fostered group conversation, created opportunities for bonding, and prompted the exploration and discovery of new music and artists. As lockdowns ended, the activity continued, and group members also began attending live, in-person music events together. The group’s use of multiple technologies to share, listen, and discuss extend previous research on collaborative playlist-making and further our understanding of how creative music engagement promotes social connection and well-being.
Krause et al. (Thu,) studied this question.