Music Platforms and the Optimization of Culture

Abstract

Drawing on Mark Katz’s notion of phonographic effects—where musicians, during the advent of early recording technology, altered their style of play to be better captured by microphones—this article explores some of the “platform effects” that arise in the shift to platformization and how cultural goods and user practices are re-formatted in the process. In particular, I examine the case of the music streaming service Spotify to think through the variety of means, sonic, and otherwise, that artists, labels, and other platform stakeholders use to “optimize” music to respond to the pressures platformization creates. I develop a typology of strategies—sonic optimization, data optimization, and infrastructural optimization—to consider the creative and logistical challenges optimization poses for platforms, artists, and users alike. From creating playlist friendly songs to musical spam to artificial play counts, I use the blurry lines these cases create to explore the tensions between the competing needs of platform providers, content producers, and users. I argue that music, as data, adds pressure on musicians and producers to think and act like software developers and coders, treating their music not just as songs that need to reach listeners, but as an intermingling of sonic content and coded metadata that needs to be prepared and readied for discovery. This optimization of culture, and the pressures it creates, affects not just musicians, but content producers of all kinds (e.g., video, podcasts, apps, books, etc.) who are forced to negotiate their relationships digital culture and the platforms through which it circulates.