Music curators are the new “gatekeepers” – they decide which kinds of music will reach the wider public and which ones will go unnoticed. In the music business, human labor merges with the workings of automated platforms. This is what is behind our favorite playlist. The job of music curators proves to be one of juggling editorial choices and algorithm-dictated suggestions. How do such music apps as Spotify or Apple Music work? Who picks suggested contents for us to listen while we work out in the gym or study at home? A joint research by the University of Siena and the University of Milan uses a multi-sited ethnographic approach developed by Tiziano Bonini and Alessandro Gandini in order to investigate the logic of music listening in the era of digital platforms. Today, music is “platformed”: access to it is now mediated by online streaming platforms. Music became dematerialized, and the quantity of available music contents increased dramatically. In the early 2000s, the advent of peer-to-peer sharing services – remember Napster? – revolutionized access to music. The public’s musical taste was influenced by journalists, radio, and critics. Once upon a time, music was to be found in stores packed with records and tapes. “First Week Is Editorial, Second Week Is Algorithmic”: Platform Gatekeepers and the Platformization of Music Curation, Social Media+ Society, 5(4), 2056305119880006.

Tidal vs spotify vs apple music 2016