A fair warning that the report here is a bit older, but it's really interesting to see the numbers behind this huge subscription business.
We can in some cases observe the inputs (# of streams, # of paid/ad Spotify revenue), and outputs (actual payments to artists), but the internals remain opaque. We don't know what % publishers take, or what Spotify takes, and so much more.
I don't like it. It puts the consumer at a larger distance from what is being consumed. Consumers might behave more according to their own ideals and values when they are directly confronted with the impact of their actions, and I think we should strive to reduce that distance. Music streaming is just one of the areas where this applies. Readup is trying to address this for online written media.
There is an academic branch that studies algorithms like those of Facebook/Twitter (and their racial bias e.g.) by observing inputs and outputs. This article's approach really reminded me of that.
A fair warning that the report here is a bit older, but it's really interesting to see the numbers behind this huge subscription business.
We can in some cases observe the inputs (# of streams, # of paid/ad Spotify revenue), and outputs (actual payments to artists), but the internals remain opaque. We don't know what % publishers take, or what Spotify takes, and so much more.
I don't like it. It puts the consumer at a larger distance from what is being consumed. Consumers might behave more according to their own ideals and values when they are directly confronted with the impact of their actions, and I think we should strive to reduce that distance. Music streaming is just one of the areas where this applies. Readup is trying to address this for online written media.
There is an academic branch that studies algorithms like those of Facebook/Twitter (and their racial bias e.g.) by observing inputs and outputs. This article's approach really reminded me of that.