by Om Malik

Over past few months, I have become strangely obsessed with reconnecting to music, listening, curating and most importantly experiencing it, much like I used to about a decade ago. In the years that intervened, like many, I too succumbed to the charms of streaming music…. the sheer ease of accessing music, anytime, anywhere on any device made perfect sense.

The downside of streaming was that the music was optimized to meet the vagaries of the broadband networks, and as such, we moved away from the idea of music from say a compact disc. But the end of our love affair with music began even before shitty headphones and low-resolution audio streams. Formats and devices have nothing to do with music, art, and creativity — what matters is the human relationship to creativity. At the turn of the century, I had ripped my vast collection of CDs as MP3 and FLAC files and listened to them on my iPod and laptop home-server-fi music system. First MusicMatch, then iTunes and WinAmp became my most used applications. The music was still blissful, and the speakers and music system were in harmony.

And then I moved to San Francisco, the speakers were damaged, and the amplifier fell into disuse and it was sold for a few hundred dollars. CD player met that same fate. The music blared from my laptop or on headphones that came with the iPods. They were poor quality and slowly and slowly, convenience trumped quality. I bought some noise canceling headphones from Bose for travel, and frankly, they were good enough for listening to music.

Music lost a bit of personal connection and became Muzak. I didn’t know the albums by heart. There were no liner notes, no way to learn the story. There was no getting up and changing the CD, a simple effort that brought me closer to the music. Playlists went on forever, and the music just played in the background. Endlessly. I didn’t know who was playing. The snippets became a way of identifying the song, but I couldn’t tell you the name of the song, without looking at the screen. And then the algorithms took over.

**

Earlier this month, Spotify launched a feature to showcase my year in music. It was dominated by old jazz favorites, the electronica from the late 1990s and early 2000s, and a few new songs that the algorithm had recommended, and I liked and played them again and again. I might have liked the songs, but the list didn’t feel personal. I had made no effort in developing a relationship with the new songs. I had no clue who made them, what was their story and why they were recommended to me. I am the only person in America who hasn’t listened to Jay Z, Rihanna, Drake or The Wknd this past year. I know of Justin Bieber’s new hit, but don’t ask me it’s name.

Music, movie, food, and book recommendations are supposed to be very human — they mean much more when they come from a friend. They allow us to build a memory, which in turn then makes them valuable. For example, I have been best friends with Tito for nearly four decades, and it all started by exchanging tapes of music, making mixtapes. Had it not been for him, I wouldn’t have ever heard Yeke Yeke by Mory Kante. Or Peter Gabriel’s So. Growing up in India, we were limited by access to music and had friends with music.

Tito and I later became roommates in New York, and our friendship will soon turn 50, just because we exchanged a few tapes and geeked out over African music, Tom Petty, and Peter Gabriel. As a jazz and blues lover, those three artists were not on my menu, and honestly, no algorithm would have introduced me to that music.

**

There is a story behind the songs, and it is why Yeke Yeke is on my Spotify Time Capsule. Much like Just an Illusion of Imagination, which always takes me back to Ghungroos, a long-gone night spot where I danced the night away in my late teens. In comparison to so many recommendations made by Spotify that make me ask – “but why?”, Spotify Time Capsule gets so much — but not everything – right. It is as close to algorithmic delight as one can get. And the reason is not the algorithm but the stories behind the components of the playlist.

The two different feelings generated by Spotify’s algorithms is also reflective of the rudimentary nature of what is being marketing as artificial intelligence. The hype around the magic of AI is at an extreme, mostly because it is a convenient phrase to get headlines, create fears of dystopia and raise capital. Instead, no one takes a pause and think – personalization of software and services that are driven by software and data has just begun.

The algorithmic world we live in puts convenience and speed ahead of these abstract concepts of human consciousness and connections. Facebook has blunted the idea of friendship, and relationships, LinkedIn has turned business relations into a spectator sport of likes, follows and recommendations. Algorithm writers forget that we all need narratives, stories we need to tell each other to have a real connection.

December 23, 2017, San Francisco

The Age of Abundance, is that posts title. It's author writes that algorithms poorly introduce randomness or unexpected songs into their play lists.

I agree. The last couple of years Spotify will publish a personalized list of the most played songs. For the last two years, my lists have been heavily, like 85% hip-hop and 90% of that is mid 90's hip-hop.

I'm sure some of my lack of variety is because of a lack of motivation or interest. I program and do web design and when I code I need the sonic equivalent of chocolate pudding to keep my attention high but not scattered like fresh music or podcasts seem to. But the lists that Spotify generates are great at picking similar music to the songs that I guess it's basing my tastes on but it's rare that it finds a song that may match my tastes but be dissimilar sonically or lyrically. Like for instance a lot of my playlist is Premier or Pete Rock but it rarely plays Tribe or Common's music from the same period.

for the same reason people shouldn't have relied on trl when okp was young or top 40 radio before that.

i think a lot of these effects are about medium-old people convincing themselves they're not falling into medium-old people habits. technology that makes money because it's convenient is only going to exacerbate the tendency to avoid trying new things.

the fun part is going out and looking anyway.

>for the same reason people shouldn't have relied on trl when
>okp was young or top 40 radio before that.
>

On one hand, I like hearing music from a critic or friend whose tastes I trust. It cuts down a lot of the weeding out process of listening to wack music to get to good stuff.

But the mass media outlets, like MTV or BET or streaming services in this case, never did a good job introducing new sounds or groups to folks who had defined tastes.

>i think a lot of these effects are about medium-old people
>convincing themselves they're not falling into medium-old
>people habits. technology that makes money because it's
>convenient is only going to exacerbate the tendency to avoid
>trying new things.
>

This is really true. I'm set in my ways and don't have the enthusiasm for music to fully embrace the new technology. I use Spotify but most of the music that comes across my feeds doesn't make an impact. It's easy for me to say that music is wacker now than it has been in the past, but with rare exception there's always been too much mediocre music. The only real change has been a decrease in enthusiasm on my part.

>the fun part is going out and looking anyway.

For some reason, seeking out music for me is really difficult. If music comes on in a random setting, like a coffee shop or while watching music videos or from hearing a friend play a song, it'll grab my attention. But consciously spending time seeking out music, even as easy as it is to access new music, is a chore for some reason.

But back to the point about algorithms taking some of the joy from discovering music. For the most part, the technology for these algorithms are fairly new. Pandora is, what, 8 years old? Spotify even younger. With time the technology of delivering music will improve. Just how access to good music criticism has evolved over the decades.

Typing this out brought the idea of socialization to mind. Getting recommendations from family and friends seems to be the strongest endorsement for me. Do you think the reason algorithms aren't successful is because they aren't sophisticated enough to read your music tastes in the same way as a friend who's really into music and hip to something that is similar to your own tastes but would expand those tastes?

of why you already enjoy

it's harder to replicate the experience of discovery. i also think we enjoy the experience of interacting with friends, or sitting in a cafe, or watching a new tv show, and we tend to notice the "hit" rate of new music we discover through those outlets for the positives.

if the soundtrack to a show doesn't grab my attention, i'm still watching the show. if i'm impressed or enthralled enough by a piece of music to seek it out, then it's a bonus.

straight up recommendations only have value for the music, so we notice the misses. honestly, my friends are as bad about pointing out new music (and i'm just as bad at pointing it out to them) as a random website it.

the lesson, historically was one of the few places that really pointed me toward music i'd never have heard otherwise. the only place i think i discovered more music was on the servers at college post-napster and limewire, and that was mostly because there were whole genres i'd never been exposed to (and lots of time faded with friends and music in the background).

Those that appreciate the art of whatever genre that you get into, will still by vinyl (or CD) to see all of the work that was put into the project.

Now on the flip side... digital is very important in this day and age. You make yourself very accessible to the entire world. If I were a music artist I would put my releases online (at no charge) first then press the record later. I know that I would make a killing at the shows. Most people are going to find a way to get music for free anyhow so just save them the trouble.

Let’s take Jay Elec, all he has done was share his music and as a result of it he blew the hell up behind it. He may never have to drop an album in reality because the power of live shows still trumps everything. Saul Williams also did this with a release in which you could either download the album for free or pay for it. It’s all about gaining exposure. More artists need to get control of their music and get away from the labels to set up distribution deals. I am sure that they can build their own studios.

As long as there is music people will always listen no matter what the format.