What is The Harkive Project?
Harkive is an online project that aims to gather stories from music fans worldwide about how they listen to music on a single day.
It ran for the first time in July 2013, and again each year since, and has so far gathered over 10,000 responses. It will run again for a 10th time on Tuesday 19th July 2022.
If you’d like to know more about the project, or about me, then please feel free to email me.
What sort of information and stories does The Harkive Project want?
Harkive is interested in the How, Why and Where. If you happen to also describe What you are listening to, that’s fine, but remember that the project wants to hear about your listening experience, which is much more than a list of songs.
We are equally interested in the devices, technology, services and formats you use as the places, locations, journeys and situations you find yourself in whilst listening. You might, for example, describe how you listened to music on your commute to work, or how you sat in a park and heard music coming from a distant window.
Can I see some examples of the kind of information and stories The Harkive Project wants?
Between now and 19th July there will be numerous examples posted to the Harkive blog. These examples are intended to point you in the right general direction but should not be viewed as templates – there is no right or wrong way to make a contribution, just tell your story in any way you feel comfortable.
I don’t think my story will be very interesting. Should I still contribute?
Everyone who listens to music on 20th July 2021 will have a unique story. Each of these individual stories will combine to create a snapshot of how we all listened. There is nothing boring about that.
When do I contribute?
Harkive 2022 is running on Tuesday 19th July and would like the story of how, why and where you listened to music on that particular day. You can contribute your story (and/or images, videos) at any point on the day. If you are busy on 19th July, or if you forget, or are unable to make your contribution for any other reason, you will be able to submit your story at any point up until 27th July 2022, when the ‘window’ will close and no more contributions will be accepted. For details on how to make your contribution, please visit the How To Contribute page.
What happens to my personal information?
You are advised to read carefully the Research Ethics and Informed Consent documentation that accompanies this project. In short, however, the methods of data collection, storage and analysis used by the project have been designed in accordance with the Birmingham City University’s ethical guidelines for research activity and any personal information you provide will not be shared with anyone outside of researchers working on the project. Certain data collected by the project will be available via an open API, but this does not include personal data. You are advised to exclude any personal information (telephone numbers, email addresses, etc) from the main body/content of stories you submit to Harkive.
I am interested in analysing the contributions to Harkive. Can I do this?
The intention is that these stories help contribute to the furtherance of knowledge and study of popular music culture, and as such we will be willing to consider any request for access. If you would like to analyse the stories and contributions submitted to Harkive then please email with your request. Please note also that Harkive will not pass on any personal information about the contributors.
I am interested in Harkive and would like to be involved
That’s great. Please email me and we can discuss how we might work together.