Spotify - anyone heard of it?

"behave different ways for different people"

maybe you can't explain how this works but i'm def interested

Oh, in the DW case I only meant that the same system produces very mainstream results for some people and very obscure results for other people.

'"Algorithms" have no inherent agenda'

not true. they're created, selected among, tuned and deployed by people who, whether they realize it or not, have cultural biases and an agenda.

Any individual algorithm probably has an agenda, explicit or implicit. But "algorithms", as a class of thing, do not.

It's like saying that things made with "tools" are "impersonal".

Does Spotify deploy "algorithms" as a class of thing, or does it use individual ones? Do I have to pay extra for the plan that includes the former?

i love Spotify and i'm not leaving.

Love, Bee OK

I left it for Tidal, once I found out about the student discount. The algorithms tried to stop me, but I ducked around a corner and lost them.

hmm, Spotify has a student discount?

plus Spotify is ILM as this point. i can't give up our playlists.

yeap, they do have a student discount. it is half off.

OTM in the biggest way possible (Spotify is ILM).

dlp9001, perhaps you can focus your anonymous discussion energies on the Tidal thread now, too.

Spotify has a student discount but I've never been able to get it to actually apply to the amount billed on my account, despite the system deeming me A-OK for such something like two years ago. YMMV.

Tidal seems to be talking about Chris Forsyth, and I don't know who that is.

I was somewhat shocked by how easily Tidal allowed my student discount, as I don't use a college email address. They must have great algorithms.

lol

College is mysterious. And Tidal doesn’t want robots completely in control of verifying who is in college.

Any individual algorithm probably has an agenda, explicit or implicit. But "algorithms", as a class of thing, do not.

― glenn mcdonald, Wednesday, May 18, 2016 9:33 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

there's an implicit agenda in deciding a problem is vulnerable to an algorithmic approach

Easy to be pedantic and just talk about the title, which is as tabloidised as headlines generally are, and easy not to think this is an issue as Spotify is used on ILM by actual humans to share playlists, which is not the case for everyone. Have a listen to the podcast, the text just has a summary, and the interesting bits come up in the detail.

speaking of algorithms

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/19/opinion/the-real-bias-built-in-at-facebook.html

also https://socialmediacollective.org/2016/05/18/facebook-trends/

so as of today i am seeing specific recommendations at the bottom of each playlist based on the makeup of that playlist... not a bad idea! For the ILX lists in particular it's kind of interesting to see what's being recommended.

it also comes with a "refresh" button so you can get more recommendations beyond the first six

I've found those very 'safe' so far. I've got a fairly eclectic jazz 'best of' playlist and it keeps recommending me Kind of Blue and Dave Brubeck.

agreed; it appears to also be drawing from other playlists you have... Yemi Alade's "Koffi Anan" showed up as recommended in the R&B playlist which can't be a total coincidence.
Regardless, it's a good idea; dunno about how good that algorithm is.

Yeah it's neat and got me listening to one thing I had otherwise missed (the Kedr Livanskiy album). I'd really prefer to have notifications back though.

That thing draws from all the playlists across Spotify, not just yours. In its initial incarnation it's not necessarily trying to be surprising, so the Davis/Brubeck thing doesn't surprise me too much. Classical lists will probably have similarly "safe" suggestions. The results will tend to be more eclectic in genres where the listeners listen more eclectically in general.

What I didn't notice till recently was that Spotify will also give you recommendations just based on the playlist's title if you don't have anything on it.

It's missing an "n" and screws up the capitals, but to hell with minor quibbles. New header for this thread:

http://assets.bwbx.io/images/iMrIEsj1N9f8/v1/-1x-1.jpg

it's awesome that glenn owns and directs a multi billion dollar company and still has time to post here, good on him

He just needs to stop destroying small villages in his quest for power.

Truly he is a rapacious monster and we cower before him respectfully.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/91I2Hs2CytL._SL1500_.jpg

how do i know

That's ridiculous. The pincers on my right arm are in addition to the lasers, not instead of them.

https://news.spotify.com/us/2016/05/23/spotify-family-plan-gets-an-upgrade/

now us$15 for family plan, everywhere except canada

Oh cool!

I don't think I have the suggested-songs-by-playlist feature yet but discover weekly did tell me that Corrina Repp had a new album out, so good job, outsourced-ersatz-brain

(I don't know what it says about me that most people I read imagine discover weekly as a "music-loving friend/boyfriend" and my imagination is a disembodied version of my brain. nothing flattering, probably.)

i'm generally distrustful/resentful of and occasionally pleased by my discover weekly, so i guess it basically is my boyfriend.

This makes me happy: http://www.factmag.com/2016/05/26/spotify-dubset-streaming-dj-mixes-deal/

if they can add that to Discover Weekly, plus their quasi-radio shows, they will essentially be an actual radio station tailored to you

House music in particular is much more fun to listen to as mixed sets, rather than having to hear 2 minutes of intro/outro for every track. I wonder if Traktor or other DJ software) will enable a "publish to Spotify" feature. Also, I guess this incentivizes DJs to only use tracks that are on Spotify, which is lame, but at least musicians will get paid something.

Interesting article on why Spotify can't seem to figure out why I love both Lisa Suckdog and Styx. I dropped my subscription a week ago, but seriously Spotify robot masters: I don't want to hear anything from Bob Mould's solo albums, and anyone with a brain could figure that out in about ten seconds, and that's a large part of why I dropped your service (the other part is that Tidal sounds about a thousand times better).

https://aeon.co/essays/your-brain-does-not-process-information-and-it-is-not-a-computer

It's weird to me that that article has been spread around so much recently, because it's such obvious bullshit. I don't know what you're saying it has to do with Spotify, but "Your brain does not process information"--what!? The guy uses the old bad-faith technique of building an argument by disingenuously redefining all the terms so as to be different from how they're commonly understood. Fuck that dumb shit

xpost Nobody forced you to listen to your Discovery playlist!

That article seems like one of many written by psychologists who have a very basic understanding of computer science (or really any science outside of their field). And, it didn't mention Spotify at all. Maybe move this to the AI thread?

And Dan I otm.

I suspect that nobody on this board is in a place to really judge that article in any competent way, as anyone with the knowledge to deal with it is busy doing more important things. It's always nice to see pushback against CW that leads to promotion of Bob Mould solo albums.

Nobody here is defending Bob Mould solo albums.

glenn's algorithms appear to be doing so irl. I'd kind of like to start a thread where the algorithms talk to us about their love of Bob Mould. Like an Algorthm S/D thread.

We're competent enough to comfortably call out bullshit like that.

Discover weekly does have very off weeks sometimes. I wonder if it happens when they're trying out algorithmic variations. Last week I got such a lame set of tracks that I was shaking my head like "Oh Spotify, is your opinion of my musical taste really so low?", but this week it was back on point.