- This post isn’t about defending Spotify, which serves here as an example and may have more issues1 than the one we discuss—it is about intentionality: our conscious effort in shaping our musical experiences. The point of intentionality can apply to our relationship with technology in general.
Streaming’s Effects on Music Culture: Old Anxieties and New Simplifications – David Hesmondhalgh, 2022
- Streaming encourages ‘functional’ rather than meaningful, aesthetic musical experience.
- Streaming encourages bland, unchallenging music.
- Streaming makes musical experience passive and distracted, and music recedes into the background.
- Streaming makes music tracks and songs shorter, and musical experience more fragmented.
- Streaming discourages and/or limits musical discovery and adventurousness
- Many articles2 and even books34 blame Spotify’s algorithm for giving us more of the same, arguing that it creates an echo chamber effect—limiting our exposure to diverse music and potentially killing the joy of music discovery.
Rather than challenging your tastes, algorithms only provide shuffled versions of what you already enjoy.
How to break free of Spotify’s algorithm | MIT Technology Review
- According to a 2022 report, at least 30% of songs streamed on Spotify are recommended by AI5.
- This fact might serve as a wake-up call for us—if we actively engage with Spotify its reliance on algorithms could decrease. After all, some things—like our inner soundscapes—can’t (yet?) be algorithmised. And that’s something to celebrate: it’s where the magic happens.
[…] we also find that algorithmically-driven listening through recommendations is associated with reduced consumption diversity. Furthermore, we observe that when users become more diverse in their listening over time, they do so by shifting away from algorithmic consumption and increasing their organic consumption.
Algorithmic Effects on the Diversity of Consumption on Spotify
- While it’s true that Spotify’s algorithm tends to suggest more of what it already knows we like, perhaps it’s not only Spotify that’s at fault.
- Let’s imagine Spotify as a partner on our musical discovery journey.
- Sure, Spotify may not be the perfect partner. But what about us? Are we doing our part?
- In romance, it’s unrealistic to put in minimum effort and expect an amazing romantic journey.
- The same applies here—it’s unrealistic to just click shuffle and expect an amazing musical journey.
- We’ve been spoiled by our partner, Spotify, which showers us with endless music recommendations. But while the spoiler shares some of the blame for our complacency, so do we—the spoiled—for failing to engage actively with what’s offered. Our relationship becomes one of convenience—driven by ease rather than effort.
The history of recorded music is now at our fingertips. But the streamer’s algorithmic skill at giving us what we like may keep us from what we’ll love.
What Spotify Is Really Costing Us | The New Yorker
- Suggesting new music isn’t as easy as we may think. Algorithms must navigate a fine line between introducing fresh discoveries and staying within our comfort zones—a challenge that even human curators would find daunting. How can we expect Spotify to truly understand our tastes if we don’t actively guide it?
- It’s possible that Spotify is making a genuine effort to enhance our music discovery experience, but perhaps we’re just not present enough.
Yes, I have the app too. But I barely use it […]
Why Spotify Has Ruined Music. A psychological deep dive | by David O. | Publishous | Medium
- Our relationship with our streaming partner, like any other relationship, falls into a rut when neglected. The algorithm’s seemingly repetitive suggestions might just be a symptom of our own disengagement. If we don’t communicate things are bound to get stale.
- Do we even bother to thumbs-up or thumbs-down tracks, helping Spotify understand our preferences and refine its recommendations?
- As Spotify wants us to like it, it’s understandable that it plays it safe—sticking to familiar territory rather than taking risks with bold recommendations.
Spotify thinks that even if we say we want to listen to something new, we always return to what’s familiar, McDonald explains. He argues that in practice, slipping a reggae track into a playlist of “bedroom pop” (a genre that mainly features dreamy melodies and hushed vocals) often makes for an uncomfortable listening experience: “If you’re given something new, it’s odd, in the same way being teleported to random spots around the world for three minutes at a time would not be a pleasant tourism experience.”
How to break free of Spotify’s algorithm | MIT Technology Review
- But have we signalled that we’re ready for more adventurous suggestions, or are we reinforcing this safety by staying in our comfort zones?
- If we really want to spice things up, we need to actively engage with Spotify, spend quality, meaningful time with it, learn what it brings and what it has to offer and teach it that we actually like and enjoy more than just relaxing jazz.

- We need to engage and interact intentionally. This means stepping out of our comfort zones, deliberately seeking out unfamiliar artists and genres, and giving the platform feedback about what it plays.
- Only by getting to know each other better, we can expect to experience something amazing.
As we grow accustomed to the convenience of shuffling a generated playlist, we forget that discovering music is an active exercise.
How to break free of Spotify’s algorithm | MIT Technology Review
- Software, much like us, is ever-evolving. If our musical journey is really important to us we should stay up to date on how our streaming partner can enhance it – what are the new features and possibilities?
- We won’t list specific recommendations because this can be limiting and possibly soon outdated. Instead, we recommend being intentional, active, and mindful on your musical discovery journey.
The problem isn’t that Spotify’s algorithm is bad, but rather that what we are looking for likely can’t be created by an algorithm, so we shouldn’t rely on it. Our inner soundscapes can’t be algorithmized, nor should we expect them to be. Instead, we should take an active and intentional role in our musical discovery journey. The joy is in the journey, so we shouldn’t look for shortcuts anyway.
Footnotes
- Criticism of Spotify – Wikipedia ↩︎
- How Spotify’s algorithms are ruining music ↩︎
- Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist, by Liz Pelly ↩︎
- You Have Not Yet Heard Your Favourite Song: How Streaming Changes Music, by Glenn McDonald ↩︎
- How to break free of Spotify’s algorithm | MIT Technology Review ↩︎
Leave a Reply