{"id":30738,"date":"2018-11-13T17:51:39","date_gmt":"2018-11-13T22:51:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digital.hbs.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/discover-weekly-how-spotify-is-using-machine-learning-to-change-the-way-we-consume-music\/"},"modified":"2018-11-13T17:54:07","modified_gmt":"2018-11-13T22:54:07","slug":"discover-weekly-how-spotify-is-changing-the-way-we-consume-music","status":"publish","type":"hck-submission","link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/discover-weekly-how-spotify-is-changing-the-way-we-consume-music\/","title":{"rendered":"Discover Weekly: How Spotify is Changing the Way We Consume Music"},"content":{"rendered":"

Founded in 2006, Spotify has grown to become the world\u2019s largest music streaming platform. The service commands a ~60% market share and provides 157 million monthly active users (\u201cMAUs\u201d) and 71 million paying subscribers access to a music catalog of over 35 million songs [1].<\/span><\/p>\n

The company has successfully differentiated itself from other streaming platforms by using machine learning to fuel its superior music discovery and recommendation algorithms. The ever-increasing proportion of music that is recommended to consumers has implications beyond simply improving the user experience: it is helping shift the balance of power in the music industry from traditional record labels to distribution platforms. <\/span><\/p>\n

How song recommendations are impacting the music industry today<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Given the limited content exclusivity (most platforms have licenses for the same song catalogs) and non-existent overlap in subscriber bases, user experience and technology are critical differentiating factors among streaming services. Using machine learning, Spotify has created a virtuous circle in which increased user engagement and scale drive larger data sets, data in turn drives improved recommendations and discovery and, finally, discovery drives differentiation. Today, across both its curated and machine generated playlists such as Discover Weekly and Rap Caviar, Spotify recommended over 30% of overall listening in 2017, up from less than 20% in 2015, providing a highly personalized listening experience [2]<\/span>. <\/span><\/p>\n

Discover Weekly: How Spotify uses machine learning to recommend music<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

In order to improve its product capabilities, Spotify has made several strategic acquisitions since 2014. None were more important than the purchase of Echo Nest, a data-analytics startup that revolutionized the way music recommendations were generated by mixing the best strategies used by other services, creating a unique discovery engine that has increased Spotify\u2019s differentiation [3]<\/span>. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Every week, Spotify generates a new playlist for each subscriber called \u201cDiscover Weekly\u201d, a personalized list of 30 songs that fit that user\u2019s taste profile. The Discover Weekly engine uses three main types of recommendation models simultaneously [4].<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Collaborative Filtering (\u201cCF\u201d):<\/span> Models that analyze your behavior and compare it to other users\u2019 behaviors<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Natural Language Processing (\u201cNLP\u201d):<\/span> Models that scan the internet and analyze text about Spotify\u2019s catalog<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Audio:<\/span> Models that analyze the raw audio files. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Figure 1: Discover Weekly Data Flow [5]<\/b><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

    Collaborative Filterin<\/span><\/span>g<\/span><\/p>\n

    Collaborative filtering is a key component of many recommendation engines today (Netflix, Amazon). Rather that recommended products, movies or songs based on similarities between items, collaborative filtering focuses on similarities between users. Leveraging Spotify\u2019s database filled with everything its subscribers have historically listened to, a collaborative filtering algorithm finds similar users based upon their listening history and then suggests songs that <\/span>only one user has listened to <\/span><\/i>to the other.<\/span><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Figure 2: Collaborative Filtering Example<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Natural Language Processing<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    In addition to collaborative filtering, Spotify uses NLP to scrape the internet for articles, blogs and metadata about specific artists and songs. Each artist or song is then assigned a dynamic list of top terms that changes daily and is weighted by relevance. The engine then determines whether two pieces of music or artists are similar (much like in collaborative filtering). <\/span><\/p>\n

    Audio File Analysis<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    Spotify analyzes each individual audio file\u2019s characteristics, including tempo, loudness, key and time signature. This not only improves the quality of recommendations for existing songs, but also enables the discovery of new songs that are less popular and do not show up via CF and NLP. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    The Future of Machine Learning at Spotify<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

    In the short term, Spotify is working on using the huge amounts of data generated to benefit the artists on their platform by providing them with very specific insight into their fans\u2019 preferences [6]<\/span>. Armed with the largest crowd-sourced dataset for music in the world, Spotify will be able to glean unique perspectives into how people consume and interact with music. As live music continues to outpace recorded music in terms of revenue generation, the company should move beyond pure music curation and use its data to help artists connect with their fans live through targeted ticket and merchandise sales. <\/span><\/p>\n

    In the medium term, Spotify is focusing on further developing its audio file analysis capabilities with the goal of further refining its <\/span>sound <\/span><\/i>recommendations (as opposed to song titles, text, images or artists). This will help lesser known acts increase their visibility and \u201clevel the playing field\u201d among artists. As this predictive technology improves, I would like to see Spotify get more involved in the early stages of the music creation process (a role that is largely played by the record labels today). <\/span><\/p>\n

    Key Considerations<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

    Spotify\u2019s recommendation engine has significantly increased the company\u2019s leverage ahead of the upcoming major label deal renewal negotiations slated for 2019. I would like to further explore what the company\u2019s strategy should be ahead of these talks from a game theory perspective. In addition, I think important ethical questions exist around Spotify\u2019s newfound ability to direct consumers to certain catalogs.<\/span>
    \n<\/a><\/p>\n

    (Word Count: 795)<\/p>\n

    Sources:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. JP Morgan Research, Spotify Initiation of Coverage<\/em>, April 29, 2018<\/li>\n
    2. Stifel Research, Spotify Initiation of Coverage<\/em>, April 5, 2018<\/li>\n
    3. Robert Prey, \u201cNothing personal: algorithmic individuation on music streaming platforms\u201d<\/em>, Media, Culture & Society, 2018<\/li>\n
    4. Company Presentation, \u201cFrom Idea to Execution, Spotify\u2019s Discover Weekly\u201d<\/em>, April 2017<\/li>\n
    5. Galvanize, \u201cEver Wonder How Spotify Discover Weekly Works? Data Science\u201d<\/em>, August 22, 2016<\/li>\n
    6. Sage Lazarro, \u201cSpotify\u2019s Head of Deep Learning Reveals How AI Is Changing the Music Industry\u201d<\/em>, The Observer, May 2015<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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