No Jennifer, I won't just push play.

Jennifer Nettles, singer of Sugarland fame, Came out at the recent CMA awards show wearing some strange cape with "Equal Play" scrawled on it in an apparent protest to radio stations not giving female artists enough air time for their songs. Jennifer is correct. The radio play of female artist songs like Jennifer Nettles and Maren Morris is much lower than male artists. That's not my beef with her protest. What I won't stomach is the solution Jennifer is promoting. If you have the slightest interest in pop music today then you already know that radio stations and subscriptions such as Spotify use algorithms to try and predict and or massage the listening audience as to what they should be listen to in their roster of songs that get regular rotation on terrestrial radio. This is why I don't have a Spotify account. I do not want to be spoon fed the music I listen to by a radio station or some music service. Yes, it works great on teenage girls or the stations wouldn't go to the trouble.

The problem is Jennifer Nettles wants to use this algorithm tool to manipulate the audience even further by programming more female artist songs. It's not illegal so what's the problem? Jennifer's solution is based on familiarity bias. In short the more you hear a song the more you will like it. Jennifer's statement quoted in Rolling Stone was "The fans don't know, they just want to hear music." Well, that may hold some truth for teenage girls but don't insult the rest of the listening audience. Jennifer is basically saying just buy what we give you. The quality of the music isn't even a question. "Just push play." she says.

As we age out taste in music, food, art and other aspects of life mature as well. Maybe you discover jazz or buy season tickets to your local symphony. Hopefully your listening tastes widens. No matter your listening tastes we all come to understand good music from bad. You may not like classical music but you probably understand the quality of the music itself and the performance. I personally think Bach was the original rock star but you don't have to subscribe to that option. That's the point. Up until this generation the listening audience developed their own taste as opposed to having it programmed for them. People bought the music they liked, not what they were told.

Finally let me offer a different theory to Jennifer on her struggles to be heard. The music industry is a mess. Country music is a prime example. If you have any history listening to country music I dare anyone to turn it on and say "Yup, that's country." because it's not. The fact is all of country music has had a major decline over many years. Is there familiarity bias? Yes, but that's not the issue or the solution. The fact is most of what comes out of Nashville now is just not very good. In the past Reba McEntire, Dolly Parton, Tammy Wynette and even Mary Chapin Carpenter had great success as female country artists. They had their own style. They had good songs and good performances. So let me suggest to Jennifer Nettles that she start with those three factors. Style, the song and the performance. History shows that is what builds a fan base. Not some algorithm.