Streamingtjänster och plattformsbevakning : En studie om musiklivets nya portvakt i en tid av streamad musik

This paper examines how streaming services, with a particular focus on Spotify, have influenced music consumption through the implementation of algorithmically and humanly curated playlists and recommendation features. By placing the role of streaming services in a historical context, this paper explores streaming services as an extension of previous gatekeeping functions in the music industry. The paper examines how curated playlists and recommendations affect music consumption and the individual listener’s ability to discover new music. The result suggest that streaming services’ use of algorithmically and humanly curated playlists and recommendation functions constitute gatekeeping mechanisms. Due to the monopoly status of streaming services in society, this has an impact on what music is listened to and disseminated in society. Streaming services have also contributed to an increasingly more personalised music curation that differs from the governing mechanisms that previously controlled popular music. This partly contradicts the stated ambitions of streaming services to provide listeners with a means of discovering new music. The controlling functions of streaming services have in turn affected music creators who distribute their music on the platform. In what follows, it is explained how music creators have become increasingly aware of algorithmic features, leading to an adaptation of both the musical content and the music packaging to benefit from algorithmic advantages.