To explore the relationship between the reference group and purchasing behaviour of college students' online music perceived value. This study conducted a questionnaire survey among 2011 college students and completed the college students' online music perceived value scale, online music purchase intention scale and reference group influence scale. Data were collected and analyzed using Mplus 8.3 and SPSS 26.0 software. The model fitting shows that the mediation model fits well. The mixed structural equation model analyses the moderating effect of the potential types of online music perceived value of college students on the mediation model. The results show that there are apparent potential types of college students' online music perceived value. College students' online music perceived value is a partial intermediary between the influence of reference groups and purchasing intention, behaviour. The potential types of college students' online music perceived value moderated the mediation model. There was a moderating effect between the influence of the reference group on the purchase intention and the purchase intention on the purchase behaviour. In summary, this study builds a mixed structural equation model, aiming to reveal the effects of potential types of online music perceived value on online music purchasing intention and behaviour of college students. In addition, in future research, firstly, we need to pay more attention to the importance of individual-centred study and ignore individual differences. Secondly, only the influence of potential types of perceived value was analyzed in this study, and stable differences such as gender were not included in the analysis. Whether there is any influence on the relationship between reference group effect and purchase intention and behaviour needs to be further discussed. Then, future research also needs to focus on the relationship between purchase intention and purchase behaviour. This study only uses the existence of purchase experience to describe purchase behaviour, which requires further investigation. Finally, the subsequent research can discuss the changing trend of the perceived value of online music through longitudinal research design.