Vote: Algorithmically imprisoned?! Have auto-generated playlists changed the way you listen to music?

[mhardy6647]

That's a negative, Houston.
I don't use 'em.
I am, ironically enough, listening to one now, but by my own choosing, and not very algorithmic.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRhskM25eDCUP-9y4HI8KUSt3j7NJLSRV

EDIT: Good lord, I just realized that I am listening via Bluetooth, too! Gott in Himmel!

 

[Philbo King]

I don't listen to streaming services. I do listen to actual radio stations streamed through the web selected by actual DJs when their shows are on:
Beaker Street (Clyde Clifford) on arkansasrocks.com

Blues from Athens Greece

Blues Radio Athen - Athens, Greece

Listen to Blues Radio Athen live online fo free from Athens Greece. Listen online radio Blues Radio Athen on Radiovolna.net

radiovolna.net

Friday & Saturday Night Blues

http://stream.kcck.org/jazz883kcck

Plus a few others.

When these shows aren't on, I generally 'stream' from my hard drive using Winamp in shuffle mode.

I object on both results and principle to having some algorithm select music for me with the intent on maximizing payola profits (I'm talking to you, Spotify). It inevitably leads me from what I truly want to hear into Mariah Carey / Taylor Swift / Justin Bieber musical wastelands.

 

[Barrelhouse Solly]

No. I prefer to pick music myself. One thing I learned in the 90s when I did business programming was that there's no reason to assume that the criteria for things like playlists supposedly based on your taste is that they can be gamed. One of my friends did maintenance on the company's web site. One requirement from senior management was that every set of search results include the top selling products and new products that management wanted to push. I'm sure that preselected playlists are gamed the same way.

 

[JayGilb]

EDIT: Good lord, I just realized that I am listening via Bluetooth, too! Gott in Himmel!

 

[DanielT]

In a way, nothing new. Only now compiled by algorithms. Compilation records, in various categories have been around for a long time.

BUT with the obvious difference that now this is just a click away from us. I see absolutely no problem, on the contrary, in exploring what the algorithms feed us with. It is still me who ultimately chooses what I want to listen to.

 

[Multicore]

I only have to listen to the algos when I'm drinking in the bar.

For one thing, their idiocy is in the assumption that I want to listen to something like what I listened to before.

 

[bluefuzz]

I object on both results and principle to having some algorithm select music for me with the intent on maximizing payola profits (I'm talking to you, Spotify). It inevitably leads me from what I truly want to hear into Mariah Carey / Taylor Swift / Justin Bieber musical wastelands.

You must be using a different version of Spotify to the one I use.

I have never been recommended anything resembling Taylor Swift or Justin Bieber or any current chart pop of any kind. I find Spotify's recommendations in general excellent. Rarely a day goes by when I don't discover great tracks or artists new to me that lead me down endless rabbitholes of exciting discovery into multiple different genres. Often as not the recommendations are tracks from artists that have been either inactive or dead for decades or so obscure that only their immediate family have heard of them, so I doubt there's much payola going on there ...

It's important to understand how Spotify's algorithm works though. Only tracks/albums that are added to your library and that you actually actively listen to influence your recommendations. Listening to curated playlists does not influence your recommendations.

My normal 'discovery' workflow is thus: Monday evening listen to this week's 'Discover Weekly' playlist. There will invariably be at least half a dozen tracks I find interesting enough to add to my library. I always add the whole album from which the recommended track comes from to my library. In the ensuing days/weeks I will endeavour to listen to the whole albums I have added. Obviously not eveything is something I want to hear again but often I will discover an artist/genre I was unaware of that I will then add other albums to my library from. I will occasionally listen to the 'Made for you' playlists which are algorithmically curated from the albims/tracks in my library. This serves as a nice reminder to listen to some of the albums I have added in the past and since forgotten. I almost always listen to whole albums unless the tracks are from singles/eps that are not on albums. I also always have 'Automix' enabled.

Rinse, repeat ...

 

[antcollinet]

You don't have to force yourself to listen to, for example, atonal music just for the sake of it.

skip works

 

[bluefuzz]

their idiocy is in the assumption that I want to listen to something like what I listened to before

I think it's a perfectly reasonable assumption. The problem arises when your musical tastes are so limited that the algorithm has nothing to work with.

Obviously, if you've been exclusively playing 80's hair metal for years on end then that's what it's going to recommend. Listen to some afrobeat, Japanese noise rock, Balinese gamelan interspersed with 40's hard bop and shoegaze then the recommendations get a lot more interesting ...

 

[Multicore]

I think it's a perfectly reasonable assumption. The problem arises when your musical tastes are so limited that the algorithm has nothing to work with.

Obviously, if you've been exclusively playing 80's hair metal for years on end then that's what it's going to recommend. Listen to some afrobeat, Japanese noise rock, Balinese gamelan interspersed with 40's hard bop and shoegaze then the recommendations get a lot more interesting ...

what if i didn't like the last things i listened to?

 

[Blumlein 88]

I voted yes. However, it isn't too different than radio listening. You'd pick a station that plays rock, AOR, blues, classical or god forbid, country music or rap. You may hear something new, but it is in the vein of the other music the station you choose has on their program list. I find some of the algorithms to play more music I've not heard rather than playing only top or current hits. Though that varies with the service.

 

[Deleted member 21219]

For one thing, their idiocy is in the assumption that I want to listen to something like what I listened to before.

Yes, but it's more than that. They don't know or understand what it is that I liked in the previous selections.

I quit Spotify a few years ago. Now I rely on either the "What are we listening to" thread, here on ASR, or ElitestClassical on Reddit.

Jim

 

[Philbo King]

You must be using a different version of Spotify to the one I use.

I have never been recommended anything resembling Taylor Swift or Justin Bieber or any current chart pop of any kind. I find Spotify's recommendations in general excellent. Rarely a day goes by when I don't discover great tracks or artists new to me that lead me down endless rabbitholes of exciting discovery into multiple different genres. Often as not the recommendations are tracks from artists that have been either inactive or dead for decades or so obscure that only their immediate family have heard of them, so I doubt there's much payola going on there ...

It's important to understand how Spotify's algorithm works though. Only tracks/albums that are added to your library and that you actually actively listen to influence your recommendations. Listening to curated playlists does not influence your recommendations.

My normal 'discovery' workflow is thus: Monday evening listen to this week's 'Discover Weekly' playlist. There will invariably be at least half a dozen tracks I find interesting enough to add to my library. I always add the whole album from which the recommended track comes from to my library. In the ensuing days/weeks I will endeavour to listen to the whole albums I have added. Obviously not eveything is something I want to hear again but often I will discover an artist/genre I was unaware of that I will then add other albums to my library from. I will occasionally listen to the 'Made for you' playlists which are algorithmically curated from the albims/tracks in my library. This serves as a nice reminder to listen to some of the albums I have added in the past and since forgotten. I almost always listen to whole albums unless the tracks are from singles/eps that are not on albums. I also always have 'Automix' enabled.

Rinse, repeat ...

To be fair, I'm not a subscriber. I tried the free tier, asked for Blues, and got Mariah Carey singing some lame-ass christmas song. Thus ended my Spotify experience; I immediately uninstalled the app.

 

[Matias]

Superbly described. I added it to the title of the thread.

Problem is that now you are biasing the answers...

 

[RayDunzl]

Have auto-generated playlists changed the way you listen to music?

I listen to my own collection - drag a title from the rack...

Or let the local DeeJays at WMNF in Tampa pick what I'll hear, that I've often never heard before, or known things being played by a different ensemble than the more widely known original...

They have no lack of titles from which to choose...

Via HDRadio at home, or FM in the car.

 

[bluefuzz]

what if i didn't like the last things i listened to?

As long as you don't add them to your library then they shouldn't be recommended.

As I noted above, Spotify's recommendation algorithm is based primarily on albums/tracks that you both add to your 'library' or otherwise actively engage with.

 

[bluefuzz]

Thus ended my Spotify experience

Well, more fool you. I have discovered hundreds if not thousands of artists of every imaginable genre, time period, or style through Spotify's recommendations. An algorithm is only as good as the data it has to work with. Obviously, without any data it will start with the most innocuous, generic and populistic tracks in its database - hence Mariah Carey ...

 

[Chrispy]

I said yes but with some qualification. A long time ago I'd use a good radio station to find new music, but most of the stations I liked (and their format) is pretty much gone now and has been for quite a while. Never got into internet radio much either (but problem is mainly the stations themselves). For a long time I've been making my own playlists from my own collection, and that remains my main way of listening to music (and my playlists tend to be just a particular album for the most part).

I have been using some of the generated playlists from a couple streaming services and one advantage is that I can easily find the title/artist compared to having to listen to (or miss) a dj's brief mention of what was played; the algorithms also do make some good suggestions in line with my tastes (but needed to build up a fairly good library of playlists/albums/liked stuff before the suggestions got better).

 

[AdamG]

No. I follow my already saved music for inspiration and use that to find Bands/Artists with a similar sound/style. About 10% of the time I will be lazy and give the Discover Weekly playlist a spin. I hear a sound I enjoy and start digging for similar matches. Sometimes I get so involved with the searching and forget to listen to the music currently playing. .

 

[CrustyToad]

Voted no but it is a fight

Usually I start with my own Playlist and then Spotify takes over. Some good recommendations but also some mood killers enter the queue.

Used to maintain my own locally stored music files but have lost track of my favorites and Playlists. Have not yet re-compiled them fully on Spotify so it's a bit annoying.

Plus sometimes you want to hear a song, the perfect one to follow on your current queue (e.g. guitar solo no. 5 by Neil Young) only to find out it's not available on Spotify. Buzzkill