Fascinating: How Spotify tells us what to listen to

One of the reasons people get hooked on a streaming music service is because its algorithm helps us discover new music. How does that work? Well, it’s apparently a lot sneakier than we realized.

Mariann from The Creative Arts and Industries department of the University of Auckland points to this new article from one of her colleagues.

“Dr Fabio Morreale, lecturer of Music Technology at the School of Music, University of Auckland, in collaboration with Dr Maria Eriksson, from Umea University, Sweden, looked at the aftermath of a controversial update released by Spotify in June 2019.

“As they argue in their research paper ‘My Library Has Just Been Obliterated,’ the update effectively complicated users’ ability to use and maintain their own music library. They also describe it as yet another step in the steering of users away from actively exploring and deciding what they want to listen to, toward listening to the music that was in Spotify’s best business interests.

“This was not surprising, says Dr Morreale. ‘The three major record labels own many of Spotify’ shares. So, when they recommend some track that is supposedly “right for you”, why would they recommend an artist that is not in their roster?'”

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