Spotify Activate

Abstract

During the course of this individual project, I engaged in UX research and design recommendations to explore the effects of utilizing systems and interactions that may shift consumer behavior on Spotify from automatic consumption of algorithmic suggestions to conscious consumption on an individual level and increased representation of diverse content.

Background: Setting the Stage

Recognizing my own social identities and perspectives, I dove into this problem space with openness and a willingness to understand that which I could not directly relate to. Inspired by Verna Meyers’ quote, “Diversity is being invited to the dance, Inclusion is being asked to dance,” I began by examining the Players and Definitions in my chosen context.

• Diverse consumption in the context of this project means an individual’s streamed music at any given point includes an array of artists from different races, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, etc. It is not so much a difference in genre, but a difference in background.

• Conscious consumption in the context of this project refers to the act of actively seeking out underrepresented artists to patronize and show support of.

This project was inspired by my analysis of the 2021 article “Shifting Consumption towards Diverse Content on Music Streaming Platforms” by Hansen et al. It begins a discussion of algorithmic actions that expose users to new content by moving away from popularity-based or similarity-based algorithms. In other words, it introduces new ways to allow Listeners to passively and subconsciously consume diverse content by mixing it in with their existing music tastes.

While the findings of this article were intriguing, it acted as a launching point to explore the possibilities of intentional, Conscious Consumption of diverse content. 

The Players and Situation

My next step was to identify the three main players in this context and to understand their relationship to each other.

1. Underrepresented Spotify Artists and Creators: Those signers and creators who identify as part of underrepresented communities and who often lack support and consumption

2. Spotify Listeners: Those who consume content on Spotify, often without thinking of the artist they patron or the community they support

3. Spotify (Company): The one behind it all. Spotify controls the algorithms that promote certain songs over others, and they also control the royalties paid to Creators on its platform.

In examining this relationship and speaking with some Creators, I recognized that there exists a disconnect and difficulty in cultivating relationships between the stories of Creators and their Listeners. The findings in this project point to moments where this interaction and exchange of stories between Creators and Listeners can be strengthened and the benefits of such implementations. With this in mind, I set out to continue my exploration and discovery.

Exploration & Discovery: Diving Deeper

With the focus on amplifying the experiences and stories of Spotify Creators, I take a moment to acknowledge the efforts that currently exist within the Spotify platform.

The Story Behind the Player: The Listener

The purpose of this project is to deepen the connection felt between these two groups in a way that promotes activism and empathy through storytelling. But to do that, let’s look at the motivations of these two groups and how they may affect how they interact on the platform.

I received 42 responses from a survey asking Spotify listeners what their preferred method of discovering new music was. I wanted to uncover how they interacted with the site, identify what their perceptions were of seeking out diverse content, pinpoint what drove or prevented people from branching out, and understand how I might utilize all of it to the advantage of this project. Based on those responses, I distilled my findings into a spectrum of proto-personas based on people’s openness to exploring diverse content.

On this spectrum, those furthest to the left (Complacent Spectators) do not see benefits in changing their current consumption patterns. These people are the least likely to respond to efforts to promote diverse content.

Those in the neutral territory (Hopeful realists, Unmotivated Activists) see the benefits of seeking diverse content and patronizing underrepresented artists but lack the personal connection to really motivate action. This category also includes people who think of their own personal benefits rather than the benefits of others (Driven Opportunists). Regardless, with the proper motivation, people in this territory can be encouraged to engage with diverse content.

Finally, those furthest to the right of this spectrum (Motivated Activists, Emotional Representatives) are those actively engaging in activism already, or those who have personal experiences that connect them to the Creator’s work. These people have the most motivation to consciously engage with content and stories from underrepresented artists. 

Now that we’ve discussed and understood the Players in this context, we can begin to put them into situations and see how they react.

Creation & Evaluation

Brainpower: Criteria and Key Themes

Knowing now what we do about the Players and the Situation at hand, let’s imagine the goals of this project in action. If Spotify were to implement systems and features in the hopes of increasing consumption of minority artists’ content and spreading awareness and stories, what might that look like? What might we avoid in those efforts? This section takes the research conducted and distills it into key themes. Concepts are then derived from those themes to act as vessels for testing the themes against the public community of Listeners.

Knowing that a major pain point for Creators was the lack of connection between them and their LIsteners, I began to dwell and imagine what might bridge that gap. What efforts would make Listeners more likely to engage with diverse content while also encouraging connection and storytelling? Dwelling on the individual Listener proto-personas and the overall picture, I identified several key themes shown in the flow below that could be used to achieve this goal. 

All of these themes require thoughtful deliberation when applied to the context of this project. It is my belief that any efforts to implement these themes must:

1. Maintain user/Listener satisfaction as they browse and choose content. In order for more diverse content to be consumed, Listeners must continue to stream content in the first place

2. Not reduce artists to their racial, gender, or sexual identity (to name a few). Rather, it should highlight stories and celebrate individuals

Key Themes: What Works and What Doesn’t

Since the core objective of this project is to explore the effects of increasing the intentional consumption of diverse content, let’s dive deeper into the Key Themes under this umbrella and imagine how they might affect the community of Listeners and Creators.

Gamification

Best to get this one out of the way first. Gamification is the way in which we “gamify”--or make game-like-- a digital experience. Commonly used on wellness applications, it can look like implementing challenges for completion, instilling a sense of competition between a community of users, or offering rewards for reaching milestones. 

To research this concept and to test it in the context of this project, I conducted an analysis of an article by Chang et al. entitled “​​Designing Non-greedy Reinforcement Learning Agents with Diminishing Reward Shaping.” I also included a short scenario to test initial reactions to a concept that included gamification in my first Spotify Behaviors Survey. My findings are listed to the right.

Final Analysis: Based on my research and knowledge of critical topics, I have found gamification (unsurprisingly) to have a negative ethical effect on both the Listener and Creator communities and would deem it an unsuitable way to encourage the consumption of more diverse material and support of minority artists.

Education and Personalization

Could a reason why people don’t actively engage with diverse content more often is because they are not aware of where to find it,  the effect it can have on the individual, and/or that there are stories behind the songs? Or is it that they do not have a personal connection to the Creator’s story or background? Or maybe both?

To explore this key theme, I created a concept and a scenario to act as a vessel through which to test the reactions of 32 survey respondents in a Spotify Concept Survey. The goal of this survey was to evaluate the reactions, expectations, and desires of an audience of Spotify users against my Key Themes. The concepts in this section are for framework/experimental purposes ONLY and were used to identify elements that could be used in further research before design implementation. At the beginning of the survey, I asked participants to rank the statements to the right that reflected my key themes in the order with which they most agree with them. 

In theory, the majority of participants agreed with the first statement, pointing to a strong connection to Personalization, especially personal connection to the Creators’ stories. However, their reactions to the subsequent concept scenarios show that the music itself may play a larger role.

To create the scenarios and concepts, I thought about my Listener behaviors that I had identified earlier in the project and tried to imagine situations/concepts that would cater to more than one of the proto-personas at a time. Scenarios were created for each of these themes, and also included moments where the key themes overlap and work together with the end goal of promoting minority Creators’ stories, culture, and music.

Framework Concept 1: Small Stories, Big Voices Featurette

LIKELY USERS Emotional Representatives (L) | Storytellers & Representatives (C)
Scenario: Imagine you open the Spotify desktop app and you see your Home Page showing your recent playlists and suggestions. Under your recent listens, you notice a new Small Stories, Big Voices Featurette is available. You click this feature and a short video starts to play about a young artist, born in Korea but raised in America. They talk about a new song of theirs about mental health and the struggles of finding identity in two cultures. At the end of the video, you have the option to listen to the song and/or view other songs/playlists by this artist.

Framework Concept 2: Community Highlights

LIKELY USERS Driven Opportunists (L) | M/UM Activists (L) | Hopeful Realists (L) | Storytellers & Representatives (C)

Scenario: Imagine you open the Spotify desktop app. Wanting to explore something new, you click to the search Search Page and see the grid of search categories. At the top of this grid, you see a category called Community Highlights and decide to take a look. You open the category and see a range of playlists catered specifically to fit your music taste but including content from only underrepresented and minority artists.

“As a person of color. I hate it. Why do underrepresented artist have to be in a different category. Especially the word “community” just hits me in a bad way. [...]. Why does it have to be separate? It feels like pity attention.”

Anonymous Survey Participant

This concept received a 3.9 out of 5 in terms of Likelihood of Use and was the most liked concept of the three evaluated in the survey.

Scenario 3: Spotify Activate

LIKELY USERS Driven Opportunists (L) | M/UM Activists (L) | Hopeful Realists (L) | Storytellers & Representatives (C)

Scenario: Imagine you open the Spotify desktop app and you see your Home Page showing your recent playlists and suggestions. Under your recent listens, you see a feature called Spotify Activate and decide to explore. Much like your yearly Spotify Wrapped, this feature is a summary slideshow of your streaming content over the past few months only this time focused on the diversity of your consumption. You see that you listened to a Korean-American artist frequently and have the option to view a special message from that artist thanking you for the support. You also have the option to see other people’s top artists/songs and explore playlists including only underrepresented artists.

“Very much of like for years the music industry puts black artist work in an R&B/rap category even though their music is pop, rock, country, alternative, folk, etc. it doesn’t highlight it excludes people from being in the other categories.”

Anonymous Survey Participant

The overall accumulation of data was liked by some participants and the feature earned a 3.8 out of 5 in Likelihood of Use

Final Analysis: You’re Gonna Want to Pay Attention to This One

The parts of these features that were received positively were those that combined Education and Personalization and that broke down the barriers between Listeners and Creators. Creators want to express their passion to Listeners, and (some) Listeners like feeling like they are doing more than just streaming content. Even more so, the findings from the survey point to potential in implementing these two themes in conjunction with Reinforcement Learning and Algorithmic Interweaving as discussed in Hansen et al. 

The biggest concern to consider is perhaps intention itself. As discussed in Perspective Check 3.1, does intentionality mean exclusionary? Separating minority and underrepresented artists in this way may not be the most beneficial to minority Creators themselves. Illustrating these themes in these concepts revealed the need for more exploration and imagination into other ways that Listeners can be engaged without tokenizing or diminishing Creators.

That being said, these concepts did not fail. They opened the door to more critical thinking and evaluation. I discovered that it is possible to engage Listeners and encourage the support of minority Creators, but there is still more to be done for the Creators themselves as we will discuss in the following sections.

Conclusion, Impact, & Further Work

As we enter the final act of this experience, let us reflect on what I’ve found and piece together the pieces of the puzzle.

Further Work and Impact

The work in this area is far from complete and serves as a launching point for further research and ideation. Further work in this area should start with Creators, engaging Minority Creators to be a part of the conversation by hearing and developing the stories of underrepresented Creators. It should also include more research on the implementation of the key themes discussed in this project is required, but further exploration into new themes and tactics is encouraged.

As more research into this never-ending issue is completed, it is important to remain open and understand that solutions will not come easily. The design strategies and UX research cannot cover up institutional conflict and injustice. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t try. As long as conversations and efforts to put forth underrepresented peoples are happening, then progress is being made and every failure is a step in the right direction. 

I do believe I have only scratched the surface. My work on this project unlocked insights into Spotify Listener behavior of a very small sample. The social identities of this demographic are not what I would deem to be an overly accurate sample of greater Listener behavior. There is truth in these findings, yes. But a larger demographic sample should be taken to expand the qualitative and quantitative insights uncovered here.