Day 20

7.1. Aims

- To critically examine users’ experiences with Spotify’s curated playlists.

Today I used to Spotify DJ. This is an AI featurw that Spotify introduced around 2023, as a personal DJ that plays your favourite tunes. While using this feature I realised that it was mostly recommending me songs that I have heard alot of the past weeks. I was recommended a lot of House music too. 

One song did stand out from the rest however, and this was Get Jiggy by B jack$. This was a NY style drill song and was the first time I had heard anything consisting of Drill. Drill is a subgenre of rap that is mainly made in NY and London. The song came right after a short memo from the DJ explaining how hes gonna "mix things up about and show me some deep cuts". Its nice to see other playlist features providing me with new music. However this was the only song that stood out as new. 

From everything Ive heard today it seems that most playlist I am being recommended are either Rap, Rnb, or House. Plus, each playlist only plays one type of genre, sometimes two only if they are similar, (take Rap and RnB). I would say my experience with Spotify's curated playlists up to this point have been repetative and lackluster. As the variety in which the songs are recommended, is very similar. 

7.2. Objectives

  • -  Explore the effects of Spotfy’s Recommender Algorithms on users’ music tastes.

    Up to this point my recommendations seem to consist of Rap, RnB and House music. The RA never seems to diffarentiate from these genres and it seems I have been trapped in this filter bubble.

  • -  To explore paterns in Spotfy’s Recommender algorithm.

    Patterns I have noticed is that the RA only really recommends 3 different genres at a time. Also, the same artists have been in rotation for quite a while now. Today I heard artists such as Mac Miller and Drake who I have heard plenty of times. This is the same for songs too. It seems that the RA has taken note to which songs it thinks I prefers and constantly recommends them in playlists.

  • -  To analyse the personalised illusion the Recommender Algorithm may cause

    Discover weekly, Ill leave it at that. Makes you think your being recommended new music but the songs from this playlist never translate to the playlists outside of this.

  • -  Examine any temporal changes in user preferences.

    As of this day in the experiment. I have seen a dramatic increase in House music being recommended to the account

  • -  Evaluate the potental for users to fall into an filter bubble while discovering music purely through the Recommender Algorithm.

    Ye  believe I am now in a filter bubble again. Honestly Ive believed this to be the case for a while now. I have had little to no new content recommended to me since the Lofi House playlists. That must have been a one off.

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