Playlisting Favorites: Measuring Platform Bias in the Music Industry / Luis Aguiar, Joel Waldfogel, Sarah B. Waldfogel.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Aguiar, Luis.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Waldfogel, Joel.

Waldfogel, Sarah B.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w29017.

NBER working paper series no. w29017

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2021.

Summary:

Platforms are growing increasingly powerful, raising questions about whether their power might be exercised with bias. While bias is inherently difficult to measure, we identify a context within the music industry that is amenable to bias testing. Our approach requires ex ante platform assessments of commercial promise - such as the rank order in which products are presented - along with information on eventual product success. A platform is biased against a product type if the type attains greater success, conditional on ex ante assessment. Theoretical considerations and voiced industry concerns suggest the possibility of platform biases in favor of major record labels, and industry participants also point to bias against women. Using data on Spotify curators' rank of songs on New Music Friday playlists in 2017, we find that Spotify's New Music Friday rankings favor independent-label music, along with some evidence of bias in favor of music by women. Despite challenges that independent-label artists and women face in the music industry, Spotify's New Music curation appears to favor them.

Notes:

Print version record

July 2021.