Spotify hits a jarring note with “Discovery Mode”

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Editor's note: Earlier this week, Spotify made a rather off-putting announcement. The world’s largest music streaming company, in a blog post, said that it will now let artists and music labels influence its algorithmic recommendations.   As part of a test roll-out of what it calls Discovery Mode, artists and labels can identify a piece of their music as a priority—a song they are excited about, an album anniversary, a viral cultural moment or literally anything else—and Spotify’s algorithm will help that particular piece surface during radio or autoplay sessions. Spotify’s radio feature plays music similar to a particular song, album, artist or playlist, while autoplay plays songs similar to a listener’s playlist, once it has run out of tracks. Obviously, there is a financial angle to this. Artists tell us they want more opportunities to connect with new listeners, and we believe our recommendations should also be informed by artists—their priorities and what they have to say about their music. And soon, we will roll out a test of a service that gives artists a say in how their music is discovered. …