A Framework for Understanding and Defining Quality of Musicians’ Experience in Network Music Performance Environments

Considerable research has been conducted on network and system level metrics related to Network Music Performance (NMP). However, little empirical evidence is currently available to assess the actual Quality of Musician's Experience (QoME) over NMP. We propose a research framework that integrates both subjective and objective aspects of musicians' experience, by explicitly considering the psychological state and profile of each musician, the environmental acoustic variables, the music performance variables and the Quality of Service of the network as the key dimensions that impact QoME. We will use the proposed framework to drive empirical studies designed to explore the QoME of musicians performing over the Internet; this paper is a first step in this direction.