When your competitor is silence.

How do you find new music? A share from a friend? A track that grabs your attention in the office? The more analogue way: “Hey Siri, Shazam this song.”

Or do you just listen to what you’re served by the algorithm?

Here’s the thing about big music algorithms, they’re not necessarily about discovering new music. As music becomes more of a soundtrack for the everyday, they are about keeping you listening for as long as possible.

Music algorithms don’t necessarily discover, they predict.

Looking for evidence? In Mood Machine, author and journalist Liz Kelly reveals a story told to her by a former Spotify employee, in which then CEO Daniel Ek said, “our only competitor is silence.” By that reckoning, the algorithm is about serving you the tunes that keep you from pushing skip or pause. 

Music algorithms have their origins in 2000s Pandora. Before long Spotify picked up the baton. It launched its personalised Discover Weekly playlist in 2015. Now, with a market cap of $195 plus-billion, Spotify is the world’s largest music streamer. Here’s where the playlist went from linear to circular.

And as Terence O’Brien writes in his article ‘The algorithm failed music’, streaming platforms like Spotify feed data to music studios, who in turn shape their music on the basis of what listeners like - according to the algorithm.

What’s the debt we pay for progress? What’s missing? The human. The judgement. The extra weight of a personal recommendation. It means more when someone goes out of their way to share something. They make themselves vulnerable. They stake their reputation on the each track or artist. Just asked yourself, when was the last time you listened to something new for a second time?