May 22nd: Future Sound System

What will the Future Sound System Look like? Are services like Spotify transforming the music industry for better, or for worse? What effect will data and AI have on the industry? Join us for an in depth discussion on data, dope beats and a dream of a better music industry.

George Knox:

Music is not just about listening, but about sharing and discussing with others. This is actually an old idea in economics: consumption capital. You need some knowledge to appreciate music, and you develop that knowledge not only by listening to it but by talking about it with others. Over time that consumption capital appreciates, and makes you enjoy the music even more (like an addiction, though hopefully less harmful).

This idea was used to explain, among other things, why we tend to concentrate on a few artists or genres rather than spreading our listening out over a really broad array. Also it’s an alternative theory of how superstars emerge (not because they’re better, but because it’s easier to find others who know about them). 

This brings me to today. I like the large and cheap variety offered on Spotify and other streaming platforms, but I miss the discussing/learning part. I recently switched to a startup streaming provider, and one thing I like is how they provide more behind the music and more discussion from artists about their performances. It’s a step in the right direction. I think more can be done with digitization and streaming technology to make “experiencing music” greater than just listening from a virtually unlimited catalog.  

Hessel van Oorschot:

It seems the trend of listening to mood-based playlists as opposed to new songs or album releases is still increasing. Consuming music has never been so easy and accessible. But don't get me wrong, the listening experience is carefully designed and regulated to serve major stakeholders. They track and trace consumer behavior and make sure their songs populate the most successful playlists & media channnels. Technologists, creatives and entrepreneurial minds still have to figure out how large consumer markets and over 90% of the musicians out there can engage in a way it's beneficial to all. One big challenge ahead of us: the music supply chain should be "fair" by design.

MC Willemsen:

My vision is that we should be able to do a much better job at personalizing music, as streaming services like Spotify have a wealth of information on what we like at what moment and in what context. However, most playlists (for example the mood playlists on Spotify) are not personalized. Moreover, in our recommender lab we recognize that users might like to have more control on their recommendations than the current tools offer. I would love to be able to tune my radios and playlists to a particular context. This might however be a personal characteristic of expert users… so how can we design player interfaces that allow both ‘easy listening’ as careful control?

My long term vision is that we should develop tools that help people explore and develop their preferences more: for example I am a big fan of Bach and other vocal classical music, but suppose I want to learn about modern pop or hiphop: what music from those genres would actually fit best with my current preferences and would help me to develop a taste of that genre? We have the data to do this and I have a new PhD student working on this.

We also recognize that music listening is often a social experience and are currently looking into group recommender systems that allow users to generate a group playlist based on their personal (Spotify) profiles.

Join us for more discussion May 22.

Speakers:

Rufus Kain

Rufus is a cultural anthropologist and musician. And a journalist working for the Amsterdam-based journalism platform De Correspondent. As a Dutch singer-songwriter, he has released three albums and a poetry collection. Where many music journalism revolves around the issues of the day, Kain writes about the political and economic side of the music industry.

Hessel van Oorschot

Hessel is the co-founder and Chief of Noise at Tribe of Noise, a music tech company offering musicians exposure and revenue through homebrew digital music services for businesses. Today, Tribe of Noise proudly serves 30,000 musicians around the world. Some of their best music is participating in Tribe of Noise PRO, an online one-stop-shop for media buyers and digital music services for the hospitality, sports and retail sector.

George Knox

George is a professor of marketing at the Tilburg School of Economics and Management, Tilburg University. Ongoing work includes examining consumer taste fragmentation in the digital age. He for example did research on how Spotify changes listening behavior.

MC Willemsen

Martijn is professor in the Human-Technology Interaction group at Eindhoven University of Technology and also works as the principle investigator of the Recommender Lab in the research program of the Jheronimous Academy of Data Science in Den Bosch. He currently works on interactive music recommenders providing users with better control over their recommendations and on music recommendations for groups.