[eli]

I'm not typically one to buy into conspiracy theories, but I really can't help but wonder if the Spotify algorithm favors songs that have more favorable licensing terms.

They have already announced they intend to let artists buy their way into playlists in the future https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/could-spotifys-new-discovery-...

[cmehdy]

Two years ago they were already shoving Drake all over paid subscribers' playlists[0]

I've paid for spotify for more than a decade and I definitely wasn't pleased to have every single playlist recommending an artist I don't like, and it was just ridiculous how EVERY[1] playlist had his photo regardless of the genre.

[0] https://exclaim.ca/music/article/drakes_face_was_all_over_sp...

[1] https://twitter.com/DanieleRose22/status/1013845491757568000

[rapnie]

I had exactly the same feeling. The daily recommendations contain 80% from albums I've either already downloaded or liked (or auto-liked, which was also a very annoying thing I had for a while). The remaining 20% is recommendations of different songs of the same artists mostly.

With New releases it is different. If I ever play, say, a song someone else sent me to listen to in a different genre, then it screws up my recommendations here for months, sometimes forever.

[numpad0]

I think that is the case for every freemium services and social networks: they (must) reward and optimize users for profitability.

[runT1ME]

I'm surprised that they haven't taken a page out of Netflix's book: sign small artists that sound close enough to what's popular to their own internal record label and push them in playlists?

[sincerely]

Oh they already do that :)

https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/spotify-denies-its-pl...

https://variety.com/2017/biz/news/spotify-denies-creating-fa...

[namenotrequired]

That doesnt require a conspiracy (really hard), just an imperfect incentive structure (really easy)

[gcpwnd]

Don't wonder. Just be realistic. Did you ever work in an IT business environment? Remember the situations when good taste slowly morphed into business interests? Yeah, that's natural in a capitalist environment. By no chance spotify dodged that bullet. Positivity and goodwill is fine but don't spare anyone from corruption.