Last week we got into the controversy around Spotify paying artists less money in exchange for an algorithm boost.
The topic got us thinking: Whether you’re for or against Spotify’s “experiment”, there’s one thing you can’t deny – streaming services’ algorithms are so powerful, any kind of tweak can throw the music industry into a frenzy.
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So, exactly how much power does an algorithm like Spotify’s wield?
Sure, Spotify has changed how artists distribute their music, how much they’re paid, how they collect fans, and it’s changed how we as consumers listen to it. But has an algorithm like Spotify’s changed what kind of music is being made altogether?
“I can hear a song that’s made for Spotify,” artist and independent record label owner Nina Las Vegas told Hack. “The subtle song that doesn’t really offend anyone that you can have on in the office? That’s the Spotify song, that’s the winning formula.”
But Nina says even if an artist manages to craft the perfect Spotify song and tick all the algorithmic boxes, it might not lead to much meaningful success.
“The problem is, that song might get you a million streams but no fan engagement.”
Alan Cross, a music journalist and the founder of the Music Technology Group, agrees that there’s a “Spotify sound”. He says the pay structure behind Spotify–where a song only earns money if it’s played for 30 seconds or more– is to blame, as it’s incentivised a massive shift for songwriting.
“Songs are getting shorter. Spotify algorithms are increasingly favouring shorter songs due to the fact that more people stick with them longer.”
On the surface, there’s something in that argument about Spotify influencing the length of songs being written. Right now on Spotify’s Australia Top 50 chart, only two out of the top ten songs listened to by Australians today are longer than three minutes. And one of the longest songs in that Top 50 chart isn’t exactly a new release: Dreams by Fleetwood Mac is over four minutes long, but it was released in 1977 – decades before anyone in the music industry was worried about a 30-second streaming rule or the complicated mechanics of an artificially intelligent algorithm.
But the argument that Spotify is the reason why artists make 3-minute pop songs doesn’t really stack up. Musicians have been making songs of that length for more than a century, pretty much since Thomas Edison invented a thing called the phonograph, which introduced records (with a play time of, yep, about 3 minutes per side) into homes around the world.
So, Spotify might not be the reason why short songs are popular and successful, but as Alan Cross says, it could be influencing how musicians write and think about those crucial first few bars of music.
“It has subverted and changed songwriting and production. So we have shorter intros, we put the choruses up front, we add as many sugar high hooks as possible for before the song is half a minute old – anything to drag artists to that 30-second mark so everyone can get paid.”
Alan argues that while Spotify can’t really take credit for the idea of a 3-minute pop song, he fears it could be crushing the diversity of music and homogenising songwriting.
“My concern is that with millions of songs on Spotify, there’s always something else to listen to. If you hit the skip button, who cares? My concern is that we’re going to see a dumbing down of music, we’re going to see fewer album tracks, we’re going to see fewer long songs,” Alan said.
“If you’re a band like Tool, for example, why would you bother releasing an album with a bunch of 10 and 15 minute songs? If you’re not going to get any more money than somebody who writes a song that’s 30 seconds long?”
The thing is, every time new technology comes along in the music industry, there’s fears it’ll wipe the whole thing out. Internet piracy on sites like Napster was a threat. So was iTunes. Commercial radio changed the sound and feel of pop songs. So did music videos on MTV.
Could streaming services just be one of the latest developments in a long line of music industry shakeups that have been happening for decades?
Alan Cross, like many others, has an age-old message for consumers who are just trying to support their favourite bands and songwriters.
“Buy merchandise, buy t-shirts, buy vinyl albums, buy anything with a really high margin. That’s the best thing you can do.”
Source: Triple Hack
