Spotify Unwrapped

How the Spotify Algorithm Creates Passive Listening

2020’s Spotify Wrapped, the computer-based year end review that analyzes and presents listeners’ musical habits, took many by surprise this year. While in the past listeners may have received “Indie Pop” or “Neo-Soul” as their Top Genre, this year one of Spotify’s main goals was to pinpoint more specific genres: this total tallying up somewhere around 5,000. Whether it be Swedish techno, Gypsy Punk, Deep Psychobilly, or Neo-Jazz Soul, Spotify’s newest set of goals is around defining every possible sub-genre (or sub-sub-subsub genre) that their audience may take an interest in. But where does this broad list of individualized genres go? How many people actually listen to Kentucky hard metal, and why doesn’t Malaysian Mandopop show up on your discover weekly playlist? Rather than using this analytical tool to introduce listeners to various sounds, Spotify uses it to further box in and segregate listeners’ tastes, ensuring that they never have to leave their comfortable corner of musical space.

Meeting the Algorithm

I usually reference “The Algorithm” sarcastically, when a friend is in awe that Spotify’s Discover Weekly feature predicted their new favorite song. The algorithm, or more specifically multiple smaller algorithms, create personalized playlists for every unique Spotify user based on previous listening habits and one of the prized algorithmbased playlists is the Discover Weekly. Every week, a playlist is released for each spotify consumer based on a computer-generated analysis of their listening habits. The algorithm does this by analyzing groups of songs, and searching through playlists (both official and nonofficial) to find overlaps within these song groupings. For example, if you listen to Phoebe Bridgers’ Kyoto and Mitski’s Strawberry Blonde on repeat for a month, the algorithm will then search through thousands of playlists that feature both songs, and then choose another title that is frequently placed in playlists with the former two, then adding it to your playlist- why Soccer Mommy’s latest single being at the top of your Discover Weekly isn’t nearly as coincidental as it may seem.

In addition to creating personally catered playlists, Spotify is also responsible for creating broad playlists with huge audiences. Some are formatted around genre- like the widely successful “RapCaviar,” while others are catered towards specific moods: “Down in the Dumps,” and still others are curated around a single artist: “Pop Smoke Radio.”Then, of course, there are those like the algorithm-created “The Most Beautiful Songs in the World” playlist. These playlists aren’t created through personal parameters, but rather broad terms: analysis of tempo, instrumentation, electronic influence, acoustic-ness, and ‘timbral emotion’. These parameters are understandable for artist and genre based playlists- Rap Caviar seeks certain intense rhythmic choices and lack of melodic structure, while the algorithm searching for additions to the Rock playlist searches for guitar and drums. However, these parameters become more vague when considering something like “Most Beautiful Songs in the World.”. A computer-based algorithm takes listener ownership out of deciding what ‘beauty’ consists of and defines something as seemingly subjective as “beauty” within the bounds of computerbased parameters.

Individual Sound

When you open up to the “Homepage” on your Spotify account, you are immediately bombarded with listening options that give the illusion of choice. However, these options have been carefully selected based on time of day, recently played music, new releases catered to your sonic palette, your top songs from five years ago, and various other personal recommendations, along with general “Chart Topping” and broader-genre playlists farther down the screen. While the carefully curated variations on Melodic Rap playlists do please A Boogie listeners, and similarly the Dear Evan Hansen-based modern show tunes please theatre kids, they also turn one’s homepage into a sonic echo chamber, where listeners are only ever recommended the genres that suit them. If you enjoy 1960s and 70s Rock n Roll, Spotify will probably never recommend Bad Bunny or Billie Eilish even though you may find their sound intriguing.

To add to the list of the countless ways Spotify has redefined our listening habits is their approach to album-centered listening. The album is not one of Spotify’s top priorities, and the impacts of this can be seen as the music industry moves farther away from the idea of an album, and towards ideas of “eras,” “projects” and singles. Even if you do seek out a specific album, Spotify doesn’t stop playing at the final track (like vinyl, CDs, or even iTunes would). It instead generates other, similar music you might enjoy, using the album as yet another indicator of your habits. This lack of a stopping point and ongoing continuation can create a passive listener, one who relies on Spotify’s algorithm to play and choose music for them, rather than actively choosing to listen to various artists or albums.

While Spotify’s ever-specified genre definitions seem like a positive thing on the surface- they enforce human difference in a formulaic manner. The history of genre definition in the American music industry is almost exclusively tied with race- with the origins of “race” and “hillbilly” records segregating black and white sound, and eventually morphing into “R&B,” “Soul,” “Jazz” and “Hip Hop,” and “Country,” with other offshoots like Rock, Indie, and Funk sprouting up along the way. The American Recording Industry systemically and historically associates genre with race, and though Spotify did not create this problem, their algorithm certainly emphasizes it. Though it isn’t Spotify’s sole responsibility to fix industry-wide systemic racism, they do have opportunities to address it.

Instead of focusing solely on the differences between genres, Spotify could use their detailed algorithm to identify intergenre similarities, and recommend new genres to listeners that are just far enough outside of comfort zones to spark intrigue without fear. Spotify has the tools to start fixing the genre, and therefore race, based zones of musical confirmation bias.

Differences Chill Beats and Focus Music

Another almost exclusively Spotify-invented idea is that of Chill Beats and lofi hip hop. Subgenres of both chill and study music are extraordinarily popular on Spotify, and are genres primarily composed exclusively not to stimulate thought by their content. Though most definitions of art and music refer to the communication of an idea, these playlists are designed specifically not to provoke any thought about the content or communicate potentially distracting ideas. As Western society continues to value productivity over creativity, Chill Hop and Study Music are forms in which Spotify has catered to and created new capitalism-influenced genres.

It is clear that Spotify can successfully create a “passive listener,”, whether through hyperfocusing on playlists, deemphasizing the album, the continuity of listening, or study and chill music. While Spotify has undoubtedly positive impacts on the music industry in regards to accessibility and social communication, active listening is simply not their priority.

However, listeners can flip Spotify’s algorithm on its head, forcing it into a fluid, genre-bending way of using music as a social tool for connectivity, even though the business model may not do so. So truly take advantage of the millions of songs on Spotify. Next time you feel the urge to put on a mindless Chill Hip Hop playlist with friends, instead try a song from the playlist of Nordic Space Rock. Or Andean flute. Or Gujarati Pop. Throw the algorithm for a loop before clicking over to Chill Hop. Spotify puts the resources in our hands for $9.99 a month, and it is our responsibility to use them well.

• Katherine Miner (Music)