I have to agree with that, the capacity for choice is important, and one I cherish especially when it comes to music. As one example, I tend to relax more to noisier music and find overly 'chill' ambient music spikes my anxiety, of all things; I wouldn't want to be unable to throw on some noisy post-punk to decompress to when I need it. …
I have to agree with that, the capacity for choice is important, and one I cherish especially when it comes to music. As one example, I tend to relax more to noisier music and find overly 'chill' ambient music spikes my anxiety, of all things; I wouldn't want to be unable to throw on some noisy post-punk to decompress to when I need it. Ceding more of our choice to algorithms is concerning any way you spin it.
At the same time, as a creature of habit I do see the appeal of ceding choice to something that does a good enough job of curation. Business interests certainly wouldn't spend so much money influencing your desires and habits if it wasn't effective! Tbh I wouldn't mind if algorithmic recommendations on Spotify were better at driving people to whatever would count as significant or good instead of replacement-level playlist Muzak; I think YouTube gets less flak than Spotify despite (if you can believe it) far lower per-stream payouts because it can push people to under appreciated gems. Something closer to an adventurous radio DJ sharing their discoveries or even something as good as last.fm's recommendations would be a major improvement over Spotify's current m.o. If you can't get people to fully choose and think for themselves, at least do a better job at encouraging those practices.
I have to agree with that, the capacity for choice is important, and one I cherish especially when it comes to music. As one example, I tend to relax more to noisier music and find overly 'chill' ambient music spikes my anxiety, of all things; I wouldn't want to be unable to throw on some noisy post-punk to decompress to when I need it. Ceding more of our choice to algorithms is concerning any way you spin it.
At the same time, as a creature of habit I do see the appeal of ceding choice to something that does a good enough job of curation. Business interests certainly wouldn't spend so much money influencing your desires and habits if it wasn't effective! Tbh I wouldn't mind if algorithmic recommendations on Spotify were better at driving people to whatever would count as significant or good instead of replacement-level playlist Muzak; I think YouTube gets less flak than Spotify despite (if you can believe it) far lower per-stream payouts because it can push people to under appreciated gems. Something closer to an adventurous radio DJ sharing their discoveries or even something as good as last.fm's recommendations would be a major improvement over Spotify's current m.o. If you can't get people to fully choose and think for themselves, at least do a better job at encouraging those practices.