Track 6: Strange — Galaxie 500

I open Spotify to play background music as I read Kyle Chayka’s book Filterworld as research for this zine. In a split second, I select one of the eight albums or playlists that the algorithm has selected for me. I don’t really make a conscious decision: it’s automatic.

Our music taste goes to the core of who we are. (Closeted teenage boys who hide their love of Britney Spears are well acquainted with the idea.) But as Chayka points out, “taste is not passive — it requires effort.” It needs elements of surprise, challenge and risk.

Spotify, however, was built from day one on eliminating friction. If playing a song on Spotify was more convenient than torrenting it on The Pirate Bay, Spotify would win out — and it did.

One of its most fateful design choices came in 2017. Chayka tells the story of how, on a specific day, streams of the song “Strange” by Galaxie 500 started rising sharply compared to the band’s other songs. It was the day Spotify turned on autoplay by default. Spotify’s own “data alchemist” investigated and concluded that it was because the song was their most generic. Users were less likely to skip it or stop listening when it came on. “Strange” had won the algorithmic jackpot. It was frictionless.

After reading this story, I become a bit obsessed with the idea that we’ve traded friction for convenience. I decide to add friction to my music listening and see what happens.

One day, walking home from the pool, I turn off autoplay. Half a block from my apartment, I realize the music has stopped. The silence feels like a relief. I’m more alert, noticing the flowers growing on my balcony. Maybe it comes from not having to monitor the algorithm to actively turn off the music when it inevitably begins to annoy me. Or maybe it’s having the choice to start listening to something else, or nothing at all. In the pause, I feel more agency and, dare I say, freedom.