Are Algorithms In Tune With Music?
By Roberta Hickey
Roberta has been a member of shesaid.so for 18 months. Her current role is Label & Artist Relations Manager at MTV UK and she is also a contributor writer for MTV UK and MTV The Wrap Up. In the article below, she explores her takings from the panel event in London, ‘Are Algorithms In Tune With Music?’, organised by Nation Of Billions and the British Science Association.
With technology ever changing the music industry, the rise of algorithms in music consumption is something which certainly cannot be ignored. Nation Of Billions partnered with the British Science Association to put on an event discussing ‘Are Algorithms In Tune With Music?’ On the panel was 1Xtra’s Jamz Supernova, DJ Semtex and founder of music tech company Jukedeck, Ed Newton-Rex. The session started with a screening of an insightful short film featuring all of the above which you can watch on the Nation of Billions YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PgPII2XqV8.
The short film discussed the use of algorithms and Jamz talks about how the Soundcloud algorithm suggests tracks based on what you have listened to previously, who you follow etc and it can be used to discover tracks and producers. The theme of the discussion was that it is undeniable that algorithms can aid in music discovery and have led to the hyper personalisation of music consumption but as Semtex says ‘music is from the soul’ so a human touch will always be required.
A point that was raised was do Semtex and Jamz feel threatened by the rise of algorithms meaning easy access to personalised playlists? To which the response was that DJ’s get sent tracks that aren’t released yet and can give these tracks a platform to an audience via their shows. Algorithms, however, use data and need a history in order for the algorithm to kick in — therefore humans are still required to break completely fresh tracks. A recent example of this is Dave’s track ‘Wanna Know‘, it was placed on a human curated playlist and got high engagement, this is when the algorithm kicked in and pushed the track to top of playlists and on trending lists.
There is a concern that the rise of tech will mean a decrease in creativity and music discovery. However, the music industry can indeed use data and algorithms to its advantage and use it’s intelligence to serve as much music as possible to as many fans as possible meaning more creators can live off their art. Therefore there is the argument that the rise of technology and algorithms can indeed enhance creativity rather than suppress it. Ed argues that humans and technology can work hand in hand and with technology able to do some of the jobs humans do — if we allow it to do so then that can free up humans time to allow for more creativity.
With streaming services feeding music to an audience now rather than the consumer having to search for it there is the argument that the powers that be at Spotify, Apple Music etc have a major role in influencing people’s music tastes and have the ability to make or break a track. Semtex’s counter argument to this is that word of mouth and peers opinions will always carry weight and while things online can indeed be manipulated emotion and opinion can’t and at the end of the day people will still listen to what they want and like. In my opinion, there are different levels of music consumers — there will always be the taste makers who spend time searching and sharing the freshest tracks and no amount of algorithms will take that passion away, they could even enhance their discovery experience. Then there will be the chart and mainstream consumers who rely on streaming playlists for their music consumption, in this case algorithms could certainly be opening their eyes and ears to artists they wouldn’t have otherwise come across. Semtex despite being a self-confessed ‘algophobe’ did recognise that playlist could aid in music education, for example he created a playlist for Tidal to educate American hip hop fans on UK music after More Life dropped and ‘Giggs’ went worldwide as a Google search term. I think Ed summed it up nicely saying that algorithms provide options, an alternative to music discovery, a part of the experience but not in replacement of human curation.
With the rise of technology making it possible for users to be served personalised playlists the question was asked why would people choose radio shows over playlists? Jamz jumped in on this one expressing the need for a human perspective. Semtex agreed stating that when tracks are played on the radio you can create a debate and engagement around the track. For example when Kendrick’s The Heart Part 4 dropped last week — Semtex discussed on his show whether the track was dissing Drake and kept rewinding and replaying the powerful lyrics ‘ Don’t tell a lie on me, I won’t tell the truth ‘bout you’ which gives the track context and heightens the experience of consuming the music. Looking further into will streaming make radio broadcasting redundant the point was made that radio has survived the rise of TV, the internet, vinyls, CD’s, MP3’s etc so why would it not survive streaming? Broadcasters just need to stay savvy and give the people what they want whether that be more interviews with artists, more live mixes… things they can’t get from playlists. There’s always going to be the need for taste makers and cultural creators, so as long as radio broadcasters have substance, create appointments to listen and play great music the panel believed it would have no problem surviving.
Moving onto the discussion of playlists vs DJ sets Semtex was very clear that technology could never replace a human DJ set. In sets tracks are cut up and mixed in depending on the vibe of the crowd and the momentum — this is something which couldn’t be artificially created or recreated in a playlist. For example a mixed set doesn’t build with the crowd, it doesn’t build pace or react to the crowd’s reactions. Ed jumped in here and mentioned how now with technological advancements machines can use neural networks to reflect the human brain with behaviour and learning and can even now replicate emotion… can a machine do the same with music though is a different question. Semtex certainly feels that a machine would not be able to replicate and even begin to fully create music in place of humans. This is due to that he believes you can’t have music without emotion, as an example you can’t fabricate the intensity of grime or the ‘moist sentiment’ of a RnB track. Technology certainly isn’t there yet but with Ed’s point that artificial intelligence is starting to detect emotion in speech and facial recognition and replicate it, who knows what can happen in the future.
The rise of technology continually affecting the music industry is undeniable and it’s incredibly interesting and exciting to see what the next development will be. One thing that has remained continuous is the need for human taste makers and curators so I believe algorithms and the rise of data is something that can be used to enhance and increase music discovery and is not providing a threat to the need for humans, not yet anyway!
Republished from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/algorithms-tune-music-roberta-hickey?trk=v-feed with permission from the author.
