Spotify. A hall of mirrors.
Spotify has 100 million songs, so why do you hear the same ones? Because it's what we asked for, and it's changing what music gets made.
THE GIST ON SPOTIFY: "The Hall of Mirrors"
Why do you hear the same songs?
Spotify has 100 million songs, so why do you keep hearing the same ones? It's actually what we asked for, and it's changing what music gets made, not just what we hear.
Spotify listens to everything. Every song you play, every song you skip, and it uses that to build a picture of your taste and give you more of it. The more you use it, the narrower it gets.
Are artists writing for the algorithm?
Artists are figuring it out. Make the hook within 30 seconds. Keep it familiar for mass appeal. Make it short for repeats. Labels are even signing artists according to what the algorithm likes. The snake is starting to eat its own tail.
What is Spotify building?
Spotify is building AI to complete the loop. 70% of its revenue goes to rights holders, but if it makes the music itself, it keeps all of it.
Spotify started as a pipe between artist and listener. A pipe that owns the water it carries is a source. When a platform owns the pipe, the water and the revenue, that's a cultural monopoly.
Is it only music?
Think how many films you watch that are sequels, reboots or franchises. Every industry is drawing the same conclusion from the same engagement data: familiar works, new is a risk.
Culture is becoming a hall of mirrors. We have the most accurate portrait of our cultural taste ever created, and it shows we are stagnating, by handing our taste to a machine that can only look backwards and then letting it tell everyone what to make. Do we keep listening to it?
Do you trust Spotify's recommendations?
Your take. One tap, then see how everyone else voted.
Quick answers
Why does Spotify get narrower?
It builds a picture of your taste from what you play and skip, and gives you more of it.
How are artists reacting?
By writing for the algorithm: hooks within 30 seconds, familiar sounds and short tracks for repeat plays.
Why would Spotify make its own music?
70% of its revenue goes to rights holders. If it makes the music itself, it keeps all of it.
See you on the next one.
What should the next one be? Suggest a topic for Huw to explain
The conversation
Comments
Nothing here yet. Start the conversation: Huw reads every comment before it is published.
