Tag2Risk: Harnessing social music tags for characterizing depression risk

Musical preferences have been considered a mirror of the self. In this age of Big Data, online music streaming services allow us to capture ecologically valid music listening behavior and provide a rich source of information to identify several user-specific aspects. Studies have shown musical engagement to be an indirect representation of internal states including internalized symptomatology and depression. The current study aims at unearthing patterns and trends in the individuals at risk for depression as it manifests in naturally occurring music listening behavior. Mental well-being scores, musical engagement measures, and listening histories of Last.fm users (N=541) were acquired. Soci…