11.09.2023 5:45pm @ SLWA Theatre

Info/RSVP

Scott Percival: Spotify and the Algorithmic Concentration of the Music Industry

It's the future: music piracy is a thing of the past, the music industry has been saved single-handedly by streaming, and you can listen to the world's* entire** music collection in a single app on your phone.

So why does it feel worse? Why are the charts dominated by the same handful of mega-artists? Why are moderately popular bands making a massive loss? Why has the Australian music industry become so desolate? Where is all the money and attention going?

The answers to at least some of these questions will be revealed in this talk, where Scott digs into the actions and financials of everyone's favourite Luxembourg-domiciled multinational streaming company, Spotify!

* Subject to regional licensing restrictions
** Subject to guesstimate-based definition of "entire"

Bio: Scott Percival is a non-binary (they/them) developer and reverse engineer from Perth, Western Australia. They are currently working on far too many projects at once. Right now the most visible of these is working on the Macromedia Director engine at the ScummVM project, with some of the work being streamed live on Twitch and Diode Zone.
Website: moral.net.au
Mastodon: digipres.club/@moralrecordings