Vinilify: Exploring Digital Music Playlist Curation Through Physical Plate Customization

Abstract

Music streaming services allow users to collect songs freely, but without proper curation, playlists often become disorganized and fail to effectively reflect users’ musical preferences. This study introduces Vinilify, a system that enables users to curate digital playlists via Spotify and transform them into physical plates through a DIY approach. The system includes a speaker, custom plates, and an exhibition board, allowing users to play their music and store the plates. A six-week study with six participants revealed that DIY activities helped participants conceptualize and personalize their playlists. Defining playlist concepts through custom plates led to more consistent curation, and the emotional value attached to the plates encouraged more thoughtful curation. This study highlights materiality as an experimental tool for uncovering insights into digital services and proposes new directions for designing services that enhance concept definition and emotional value to support consistent and meaningful curation experiences.