The Four-Letter Code to Selling Just About Anything

The original version of Discover Weekly was supposed to include only songs that users had never listened to before. But in its first internal test at Spotify, a bug in the algorithm let through songs that users had already heard. “Everyone reported it as a bug, and we fixed it so that every single song was totally new,” Ogle told me.But after Ogle’... See more

Cultural works aren’t hedonic appliances dispensing experiences with greater and greater efficiency for audiences to passively consume. Creators and audiences are always engaged in an active process of outmaneuvering each other. Yes, I want more of what I already like, but I also want to be surprised. New patterns are discovered, repeated, become t... See more

Most consumers are simultaneously neophilic, curious to discover new things, and deeply neophobic, afraid of anything that is too new. The best hit makers are gifted at creating moments of meaning by marrying new and old, anxiety and understanding. They are architects of familiar surprises

Recommendations kills Favorites: AI-driven recommendations transcend our historical go-to’s. Rather than compulsively saving playlists that i discover and love on Spotify, I’ve surrendered myself to the algorithms. It was really the radio feature plus the new “enhance” feature that did it. I now trust that any song I like leads to a playlist I will... See more