How streaming is messing with (and ruining) our musical culture

Last summer, I delivered a TEDx presentation on how streaming is ruining music. It must have touched a nerve because I’ve been asked to present the same thing at a conference in Gdansk, Poland, in May. Here it is.

Obviously, I’m interested in other positions on this topic. Take, for example, this recent article from Quartz.

Whether you’re a fan of country, hip-hop, jazz, classical, Latin, rock, or any music genre in-between, you most likely listen to music on a major streaming platform.

“This means your listening habits and music choices are noted by curators who work at those streaming platforms, and who input it as data used to inform the algorithms that power the digital music industry.

“This is how streaming platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music, and Pandora build their vast metadata libraries. Additional data is imported from music cataloging services like Billboard and TiVo, which include information acquired from services like AMG, Muze, Rovi, and Veveo, which also power services like AllMusic.

“But for all access to all this information, music services are afflicted by a data gap. This impacts not only how music cultures evolve, but how artists who fit into an acceptable genre are compensated versus those who fall through the cracks.

“The main cause of this disconnect is the misanalysis of, or a failure to even see, various subgenres of music styles.”

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