M&P: Resist the algorithm

The problem with streaming

Photo by Patrick Perkins on Unsplash

I occasionally write non-soccer posts in this space. For those uninterested in those topics I label them as follows: STS (Stick to Soccer!) for posts of a political nature, M&P for posts about music or pop culture, OS for posts about sports other than soccer, and NSR for anything that doesn’t neatly fall into any of those definitions.

I’m deeply ambivalent about music streaming. That’s not entirely true. I don’t like what streaming has done to the industry and, in particular, how the techbros behind services like Spotify continually screw over artists. By now it’s old news that Spotify acts like a reverse Robin Hood, stealing revenue that should be going to smaller artists so that it can give the Taylor Swifts of the world even more of the pie. If you aren’t familiar with their shockingly bad payment policies, you can read more here.

As an independent writer who experienced the great Bloggr AdSense revenue reckoning a little over a decade ago, all I can do is raise my fist in solidarity with my indie music brethren. I wish I could offer them some hope, but I used to make enough money to eat from my blog. Now, I work in marketing.

When it comes to the internet and creatives there is one constant: creativity and originality will rarely be rewarded for long. Someone is eventually going to sweep in to try and commodity your art and when they do… you’re fucked, basically. A select few will get lucky and hit on some format that appeals to the broadest base and they will suck up all the revenue. Most, however…

The system is very good for 1%. Bad for everyone else, including those who like to be challenged by their art. All we can do as creators is to adjust our expectations (i.e. find your job in marketing) and as fans we have to work to make sure that we are supporting the artists we care about.

Most of us can’t financially support all of them, of course. However, we can seek them out, and promote them, and fight against the algorithm that tries to constantly drive us toward the mainstream

So this is where that ambivalence about streaming comes in. I recognize how streaming has made the music industry so much harder to navigate than it was prior to the digital age (a topic I will likely explore in a future blog) and I want to fight against that…

…But, the only way to discover these bands is often through streaming. Sure, I could be a guy who only listens to physical media, but I fear that doing that would basically freeze my musical tastes at about 1997, the date most of the records in my collection were released before.

There are a lot of oldsters who are happy with their classic rock (or pop or house or hip hop or…) collection and don’t wish to evolve, but I am not one of those guys. So, I, like most, stream. I refuse to give the vultures at Spotify any money, so I use the less well-known (and marginally more ethical) Deezer. This makes it harder for me to share a playlist, but (slightly) easier to sleep at night.

The other thing that I do like about streaming is the monthly and yearly lists of your most played tracks. I spend more time than a reasonable person should trying to guess what my top songs will be and I lament that I don’t know this information about myself from all my life — even if it would probably reveal some embarrassing truths about my 20s.

Duane, why did you listen to Bela Lugosi’s Dead 96 times in February 1996? Don’t ask questions…

So, I was excited to see my Top 2024 list come out this week.

Then I was confused.

Then I realized that even something that is an objective look at what my actual behaviour was in 2024 doesn’t exactly line up with what my memory is. Not that I’m denying that the songs listed are accurate, but rather they are more a reflection of what the algorithm thinks I am. Further to that, it seemed to me that this year’s list was even more driven by algorithm — AI, really — than previous years were.

Clearly, it’s stuff I like, but a lot of my most listened to tracks in 2024 weren’t stuff I sought out, but rather music that was most likely to be served up by the music I sought out. I like to listen toCanadian indie artists a lot, so I would often throw on a song by 54:40, or Rural Alberta Advantage or, I don’t know, Spirit of the West and let it play. Inevitably, those playlists would always end up in the same place, giving streams to songs that I like, but that I didn’t really choose and that often aren’t even the best song by that artist.

So, even as someone who seeks out new music, I still get a lot of familiar stuff fed to me. I suspect there’s a business case for that (probably something to do with keeping you on the site longer). There always is. That’s frustrating.

Ultimately this is all part of the push towards shoving AI down our throats. Here’s the thing, there is nothing good that comes from that, whether that’s generative AI, or musical algorithms. This may sound dramatic, but we are giving up our free will to machines, which are just guessing what we want based on data sets.

That’s not really a future that I like, especially as a music fan.

So, is there a solution to this as it relates to music? One that still acknowledges the reality that you need to stream to be exposed to new music?

Sure. Create more playlists. Share the ones you create. Kind of like how we used to do when we made a mixed tape! Whenever possible, don’t let the algorithm tell you what to listen to. take back control from the machines!

---

To end this, let’s look at my top tracks. What’s interesting is that there are tracks here that didn’t get pushed by the algorithm. That’s because they were on a playlist I called Fast Celtic and that I ran to on many cold winter mornings last January and February. About half of my top 15 songs were ones that just kept getting played though (Including the two Manic Street Preacher songs that, hilariously, have been on my Monday “Discovery” playlist every week for more than a year now).

Yo, Deezer. I’ve discovered them.

Anyway, my 2025 music goal is to make sure that my list next year has more weirdness, more new stuff, and far less AI-Duane.

My top 15 streamed tracks:

1. We’ve Got To Be Alone (Red Cardell) — Fast Celtic playlist

2. Money City Maniacs (Sloan) — Algorithm driven

3. The American Dream is Killing Me (Green Day) — New

4. Your Love Alone is Not Enough (Manic Street Preachers) — Algorithm

5. Birth of a Celt (Green Lads) — Fast Celtic

6. New Orleans is Sinking (The Tragically Hip) — Algorithm

7. Northwest Passage (The Real McKenzies) — Fast Celtic

8. Donald, Where’s Yer Troosers (Enter the Haggis) — I have no regrets

9. Push (Moist) - Algorithm

10. One Eyed Bastard (Green Day) — New

11. You Stole the Sun From My Heart (Manic Street Preachers) — Algorithm

12. Common People (Pulp) — I love Pulp, but this was all Algorithm

13. Brian Wilson (BNL) — Algorithm

14. Stickly Sweet (NewDad) — New

15. (I’m Gonna) Cry Myself Blind (Primal Scream) — Algorithm