Homemade videos by U2 fans could help online music providers use emotions to suggest playlists

A study of homemade videos by U2 fans could help online music providers use emotions to better suggest and personalise playlists.

The Irish band invited fans to create their own videos for ‘Song For Someone’, from U2’s 2014 album Songs Of Innocence, in order to make it “your song”.

A team from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow looked at 150 YouTube videos of the song including covers and slideshows, and found “a range of methods, both visual and musical, used to convey emotion, through location, style of music, and video content”.