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A few weeks ago, I found myself looking for something to listen to. I browsed my Spotify Release Radar, scrolled through my hundreds of playlists and even took a peek at the newest unhinged \u201cdaylist\u201d the algorithm had generated. Nothing spoke to me. Every song sounded the same, and even the projects I always enjoyed were starting to sour. I couldn\u2019t find anything to deliver the dopamine I needed. Horrified, I realized that I was treating my love for music like an Instagram Reels doomscroll.\u00a0<\/p>\n
With the recent rise of artificial intelligence, we\u2019ve all been thinking<\/a> more about how technology has, and will continue to, affect the way we interact with artists and their music. While algorithms and streaming have revolutionized music discovery, other facets of our music consumption \u2014 such as owning physical music, sitting through albums front to back and digging through record shop crates \u2014 have disintegrated under this new system. We\u2019re at the height of convenience, accessibility and personalized curation, but these perks may come at the cost of the intentionality of our listening. If music is art, why are we treating it like a single-use product?\u00a0<\/p>\n On one hand, there are countless ways that algorithmic culture<\/a>, or the effect of offloading cultural work onto computational processes, has benefited both artists and listeners. Features like Spotify\u2019s Discover Weekly, customized playlists and autoplay not only help music fans discover new songs, but can also provide a new way for smaller, independent artists to gain exposure. For a monthly subscription fee the same price of a coffee and a croissant<\/a>, users have unlimited access to more than 100 million tracks<\/a>. Streaming platforms have also reduced many of the barriers to entering the music industry; it has never been easier to go viral with a simple soundbite or to get discovered on a curated playlist<\/a>. On Spotify, anyone is able to sign up for an artist profile, and those who do have full control over their account \u2014 including access to their streaming data, engagement and demographics \u2014 are able to find out more about their audience. In a pre-streaming world, all this was next to impossible.\u00a0<\/p>\n However, as technology and music become one and the same, streaming platforms face continuous backlash for their unethical practices. Spotify, in particular, has been widely criticized for its unfair artist compensation<\/a>, and over the last six months, its co-founder and CEO Daniel Ek has come under fire for spearheading almost $700 million in investments<\/a> for drones and AI-powered military operations. While algorithms appear to make everything easier, their primary goal has always been to fill the pockets of those controlling them.\u00a0<\/p>\n