Big Data: The new avenue for measuring cultural consumption?

How to accurately measure cultural consumption in the digital era? Provision of key cultural products, such as music or cinema, is increasingly accessible only through online platforms. Consumption of such services by consumers using electronic devices will generate a large amount of data, called Big Data. Several initiatives have taken place at the international and national levels to reconsider the way data are collected and to assess the viability of using Big Data as an official source to understand consumer behaviour. Teaching the impact of the digitalization on culture consumption and its measurement will shed light on the shift of cultural practices induced by digitalization and their impact on data collection, the creation of Big Data and the challenges associated with their use.