Good evening Readers!

We hope that you are enjoying the winter break and have spent time celebrating with friends and family! Before we ring in the New Year here at Novus Opus, I wanted to take a moment to chime in on Devin’s spotlight on the Music Streaming industry and the future developments in the pipeline.

Devin wrote about the potential for machine learning algorithms to not only identify the music we want to hear but also to compose new music tailored to our individual musical taste. As a musician myself this seems a crazy thought! Regardless of your favourite genre of music, the tunes are written with passion and from a place of emotion. I would be quite sceptical as to whether a machine algorithm could be capable of writing music that transcends the music written by artists both past and present.

As well as quality limitations, I believe that the absence of a face behind the music may also lead to a lack of enthusiasm with regards to the adoption of computer-generated music. Everyone has their favourite artist or band. The personality adds to the sound, and the sound to the personality. The musical experience is enhanced further when you see your favourite artist live. I fear for the day when someone poses the question “What is your favourite music algorithm?”

I believe that technologies greatest strength lies in the analysis of music to automate music recommendations. Spotify leads the way in this department, with each of their 83 million users receiving a weekly Discover playlist jam-packed with personalised recommendations. But what is it that sets Spotify’s algorithm apart from Apple Music, Pandora and others’ algorithms? “The main ingredient in Discover Weekly, it turns out, is other people. Spotify begins by looking at the 2 billion or so playlists created by its users each one a reflection of some music fan’s tastes and sensibilities. Those human selections and groupings of songs form the core of Discover Weekly’s recommendations.” (1)

Of course, the algorithm used by Spotify is a lot more complex than simply a comparison of playlists, however, at its core, the biggest music streaming platform in the world is powered by humans. I believe that this trend will continue into the future in music development and production.

Ross Finnegan
Novus Opus

 

References

(1) Quartz. (2018). The magic that makes Spotify’s Discover Weekly playlists so damn good. [online] Available at: https://qz.com/571007/the-magic-that-makes-spotifys-discover-weekly-playlists-so-damn-good/https://qz.com/571007/the-magic-that-makes-spotifys-discover-weekly-playlists-so-damn-good/ [Accessed 30