First, I applaud what you're doing. Second, if you've already pondered these ideas, please disregard.
Third, I'm 49 years old and I was heavily into the "payola is evil, liberate music back to the ears of the listeners" movement, that spawned projects like muxtape, Napster, jamendo, and ultimately Spotify and the like (my involvement was nowhere near the scale of any of these players, but I knew the space well).
Now, I miss the Clive Davis's of the world. Go figure. I also miss trading cassette tapes with my friends, but today, to some degree, I do that through Spotify, but it's not the same. Of course, am not the same as the kid that was trading tapes. I'm a different person, no longer pedaling down the street to buy the latest Bad Religion album to listen to at a sleep over. Today I'd be more inclined towards Theloneous Monk. Nevertheless, I still LOVE listenng to, discovering and sharing music. I could be wrong, but given the trend, I don't really feel like that will change until I die.
With the context, I offer the following thoughts, to take or leave:
1. Maybe reconsider whether algorithms are indeed the enemy. The world of music is vast. Algorithms are powerful in helping me find new music in that ocean. However, the current Algorithms do seem quite myopic to me, functioning more like a echo chamber, vice expanding my musical aperture. So, maybe consider an algorithm, but one that functions more like the legacy music industry system network comprising scouts, producers, agents, managers and labels. Maybe even with some humans in the loop. The discovery and sharing go hand-in-hand. You want to share what you discover and love. Algorithms, I believe, can still help listeners discover.
2. Maybe consider radio. I don't fully understand why it seems as though people are forgetting the amazing network that is FM/AM radio (not internet radio). It's a one-way, open and persistent broadcast of information to subscribers - in a geographical vicinity that is. That latter piece is key. If I'm dialed-into a station, I know that others listening are in my local proximity and so are experiencing the same local issues as me (e.g. politics, crime, weather, natural disasters, war, etc). The other people listening aren't necessarily your friends, or family or colleagues (though some may be of course), but rather just people in this geolocal bubble you happen to be in together. The structure of our radio network is constrained geographically, which I believe is a massive strongsuit, vice a weakness. Bottom line, I suspect there is a benefit to the listener in music sharing mediums that are, perhaps at least in part, geographically constrained.
Keep going! Love where this is headed