Pandora took away the effort in digging for songs and provided a much broader catalog than broadcast or satellite radio. Its Music Genome Project, a proprietary technology that classifies recordings’ various musical traits, gave it the ability to pick the right songs based on a history of giving other songs a “thumb up” or “thumb down” vote. Pandora was revolutionary when it launched in 2005 because it had a spooky sense of what people wanted to hear.

When a streaming service does personalization well, it adds great value to a listening experience. From the first quarter of 2021 to the first quarter of 2022, Discovery Mode had a 98% customer retention rate, Charlie Hellman, Spotify’s vp/global head of music product said during the company’s 2022 investor day presentation.Īre Gangs Behind Music’s Streaming Fraud Problem? It works by increasing the likelihood a song will be recommended to a listener. In all, 48% of time spent listening to music was “lean back” listening on streaming services, broadcast radio and satellite radio.Īlgorithms also drive helpful products such as Spotify’s Discover Mode, a promotional tool that allows artists and labels to find new listeners in return for a lower royalty rate. That figure rose to 31% for Apple Music users and 32% for Amazon Prime Music users. A 2021 MusicWatch survey found Spotify Premium users spent 25% of their time in “lean-back” listening rather than “lean-in” listening. When given an on-demand streaming service, people often let an algorithm do the hard work of picking the next song. What has the world come to, some people fret, when dreaded algorithms are deciding what music gets heard? What gives an algorithm such an important role in determining how royalties will be paid?īut algorithms are a common way to stream music. That’s a more passive, lean-back approach to listening than hunting and pecking on the app’s user interface to choose a song.Īt some point between the launch of internet radio platforms and the present battle for better royalties, passive listening got a bad rap. When they say, “algorithmic programming,” they mean the streaming service’s personalized recommendations about what song will play next. The partnership will “ the economic influence of algorithmic programming” and reward “engaging content” with greater royalties, according to the companies’ press releases. On Tuesday, French music streamer Deezer and Universal Music Group announced a partnership to reinvent how Deezer calculates UMG’s streaming royalties. UMG and Deezer Outline New Streaming Model to Cut Through Noise

Deezer backstage