It’s crazy how much sway Spotify and other streaming apps have over the future of what music is popular. Radio pop hits aside, I know lots of people who’s music preference is something along the lines of “a few bands I like and their associated Spotify recommendations”. Music preferences and trends have always been culturally motivated both through grassroots word of mouth, and top-down by those creatively in charge at record labels.

But now with algorithmic suggestions there is a third trend-motivator, which is music listeners and music producers reflecting on the overall system for statistical trends and correlations. I expect this motivator to push out the other two because it makes labels more (and safer) money and consumers seem to like it. The conditions for success are now highly metricked and quickly A/B testable. It’s like the internet before and after PageRank—and just the same, I would expect a cottage industry of “SEO” to pop up for the music industry.