Computing Taste: Algorithms and the Makers of Music Recommendation

220 Pages·2022·1.901 MB·English

by  Nick Seaver

Computing Taste

Computing Taste
Algorithms and the Makers
of Music Recommendation
Nick Seaver
Th e University of Chicago Press Chicago and London
Th e University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
Th e University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2022 by Th e University of Chicago
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any
manner whatsoever without writt en permission, except in the case of brief
quotations in critical articles and reviews. For more information, contact
the University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th St., Chicago, IL 60637.
Published 2022
Printed in the United States of America
31 30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 1 2 3 4 5
ISBN-1 3: 978-0 -2 26-7 0226-1 (cloth)
ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 82297- 6 (paper)
ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 82296- 9 (e- book)
DOI: htt ps:// doi .org/ 10 .7208/ chicago/ 9780226822969 .001 .0001
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Seaver, Nick, 1985– author.
Title: Computing taste : algorithms and the makers of
music recommendation / Nick Seaver.
Description: Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2022. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifi ers: LCCN 2022017125 | ISBN 9780226702261 (cloth) |
ISBN 9780226822976 (paperback) | ISBN 9780226822969 (e-book)
Subjects: LCSH: Music—Philosophy and aesthetics. |
Recommender systems (Information fi ltering). | Music—Social aspects.
Classifi cation: LCC ML3877.S43 2022 | DDC 781.1/7—dc23/eng/20220408
LC record available at htt ps://lccn.loc.gov/2022017125
Th is paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48- 1992
(Permanence of Paper).
For Gus and Poppy

Contents
Prologue: Open Plan * ix
Introduction: Technology with Humanity * 1
Chapter 1
Too Much Music * 22
Chapter 2
Captivating Algorithms * 49
Chapter 3
What Are Listeners Like? * 72
Chapter 4
Hearing and Counting * 95
Chapter 5
Space Is the Place * 116
Chapter 6
Parks and Recommendation * 140
Epilogue: What Are We Really Doing Here? * 155
Acknowledgments * 159
Notes * 163
Works Cited * 175
Index * 197

Prologue
Open Plan
In the offi ce, there is always music.
It plays from speakers tucked among exposed wooden raft ers, fi lling
two fl oors of an old brick building with a shared soundtrack. Th e mu-
sic fl ows over clusters of tables scatt ered with screens, papers, and empty
bott les. It reaches everywhere across the open- plan offi ce, muted only by
the large headphones some engineers wear or the doors that close off a
few small meeting rooms and private offi ces.
Upstairs, the volume is usually turned down; the people here are older,
the shirts have more butt ons, these “nontechnical” employees make sales
calls or greet visitors. Downstairs sit the engineers, wearing company
T-s hirts, typing rapidly, and staring into pairs of monitors. Th e music is
loudest at one end of this fl oor, playing over a ring of couches from a
speaker balanced on top of a kitchen cabinet.
Here, people take breaks from their desks, and visitors camp out un-
der a screen that displays the offi ce playlist. Anyone logged on to the
corporate network can add to it, from the CEO to the interns to me, a
visiting anthropologist. Th e result is an omnivorous mess: bright and airy
pop gives way to dark and dense black metal before the playlist is over-
taken by a run of songs with “pizza” in the title. (Th e offi ce manager has
ordered pizza for lunch.) Pounding club music segues into the sounds of
a barbershop quartet, followed by the main theme from the video game
Sonic the Hedgehog.
Th e open- plan offi ce is a notorious symbol of technology start-u p cul-
ture. Around the world, scrappy teams of coders seek and spend funding
from offi ces assembled in repurposed industrial buildings. In the molted
shells of capitalisms past, these adolescent companies try to demonstrate
their fl exibility and agility in part through their furniture. Teams and
tables are readily reconfi gured, people constantly change seats, and if the