Paper short abstract:

Drawing on rich ethnographic research, from rehearsal rooms, recording studios and record labels, this paper explores how the algorithms of digital streaming platforms, such as Spotify, are increasingly shaping the creative process of musicians and the kinds of value they produce.

Paper long abstract:

New digital technologies - particularly the algorithms of platforms such as Spotify - are having an unprecedentedly determining and little understood effect on the way music is created and valued. The music industry finds itself in a transitory moment in which these new algorithmic and AI technologies are developing apace. Whilst Spotify's algorithm is already reshaping how music is economically valued - the effects of which are being keenly felt by musicians - advances in AI are raising questions about the role of human creativity itself. How these technologies are configured and deployed - by established companies such as Spotify, Apple and Amazon, as well as by innovative tech startups - will shape the profession of musician for the next 30 years. How are these new technologies shaping creativity? What choices are being made, now, that will shape the future of musical composition and consumption? How are these choices being informed?

Based on ethnographies of rehearsal rooms, recording studios and record labels, this paper resists long established conventions that value must be understood in either economic or gift-based terms, and instead explores the creative process, revealing music's shifting and deeply ambiguous relationship with technology, money and power. At the heart of these insights lie deeper concerns about how algorithms and AI - such as Facebook's News Feed, Google Search and Amazon's Alexa - are increasingly mediating our lives, shaping our moral and ethical choices.