Curatorship in the music streaming services:

algorithmic infrapowers and the micro-politics of listening

Abstract

Thepaper discusses modalities of curatorship developed by music streaming services and how they affect cultural habits and practices in thelistening experience. The discussion is based on literature, highlighting the potentialities and insufficiencies of the music recommendation process based on the combination of algorithmic analysis with the intervention of specialized curators. The curatorship policies ofthe Spotify, Tidal, AppleMusic and Radiooooo services are comparatively commented on. Concerns about musiclisteningthrough streaming platforms are raised under the focus of the micro-politics concept developed by Michel Foucault. We inquire whether, even under the economic and mediatic conditions established by such technological devices, the actions, mediations and interactions, which act as micro-politics, succeed in overcoming the interactive dynamics of infrapowers pre-established by the logic of automated recommendation systems, driving new creative musical practices.