Can Algorithmic Playlists Replace Human Curation?
One of the hot topics in the music industry right now is the debate regarding whether algorithms, or technology in general, can replace human curation. The question is: which type of playlist is better? And specifically for brands that spend so much time and effort on their identities, what’s the best way to ensure a consistent brand sound?
How Algorithmic Playlists Are Generated
Popular consumer streaming services, such as Spotify and Apple Music, tout both types of playlists: human curated, as well as algorithmic. In order to generate algorithmic playlists, these tools track a user’s listening history, and leverage the track’s metadata to develop a list of similar artists and tracks for future play.
The problem with solely using algorithms for commercially-licensed music programs is that they’re extremely limited. While the output is influenced by listening behavior, the outcomes are often predictable and lead back to the same place—often as repetitive and conventional as listening to commercial radio.
Eventually, a person will need to intervene to prevent disconnected content and avoid hearing the same songs every two hours. And no matter how advanced the catalogs, metadata, and algorithms get in the future, music-on-autopilot can’t easily adapt to the changing needs of brands.
“Algorithms are useful for many things. But automating any aspect of brand voice is risky.”
Where Human Curation Wins
Brands spend a lot of time on their identities, products, store layouts, and digital presence—and one area that’s extremely underutilized is the brand sound. The use of music and entertainment media within space—physical, digital, emotional, and experiential—makes these spaces come alive.
Our Music Supervisors have deep knowledge of genres, types, trends, periods, emerging artists, and cultural impact when it comes to music. They program much of what you hear major brands playing throughout their stores, websites, and more, selecting songs that are each cataloged by 174 distinct traits.
With the expertise of a Music Supervisor, brands can take their music to the next level.
Add Music to Brand Guidelines.
Create brand standards for sound that address audience personas and align with other brand elements.Support Marketing Campaigns.
Leverage music to support specific marketing or brand initiatives, campaigns, product launches, experiential programs, or recurrent content programs.Increase Customer Loyalty.
Add music as to loyalty programs to promote registrations, engagement, app downloads, and more.Promote Music Discovery.
With an average playlist length 10x that of a Spotify playlist, brands can reduce employee fatigue and increase the opportunity for music discovery.
Why We Prefer the Human Touch
As music lovers who spend hours and hours looking for new music and remembering old, when it comes to curating music for brands, we believe that humans deciding with data is better than data deciding for humans. Algorithms can show you what has happened and suggest something related that might fit the bill, however as beings who sometimes do crazy things like eat breakfast for dinner, that isn’t always the case.
About PlayNetwork
PlayNetwork is the leading global provider of music and entertainment media experiences for brands worldwide. We partner with over 450 brands spanning 125,000 customer locations in more than 135 countries, our work reaching 100 million people every day. This post, Can Algorithms Replace Human Curation?, is a part of our Keys to Marketing with Music series. To learn more about PlayNetwork, visit www.PlayNetwork.com.