Spotify:
Spotify often tries to appeal to my taste by creating mixes for me that include the genres I listen to. These playlists are Daily Mixes, On Repeat, Daylist, etc. These playlists are meant to appeal to my music taste and manage my experience on the app. They also promote podcasts heavily, suggesting podcasts similar to what I have already listened to and podcasts I used to listen to.
TikTok:
TikTok appeals to its users by employing an algorithm that determines what videos you will be most likely to interact with. So in contrast to Spotify, everything that is played is meant to be for me. There is a search feature on TikTok, but I rarely find anyone using it unless they are searching for a video they have already watched. So the primary way I plan to manipulate tik tok is by utilizing the “For You Page” and liking videos related to the situation that Erik is going through.
Plan:
I created the alias, Erik Smith, to curate my online persona for that of someone who recently ended a relationship. I created a Spotify account for him and a TikTok account for him. I decided that, for 10 minutes a day, I would scroll through Erik’s TikTok ‘For You Page’ and like only videos related to relationships ending and or depressing material on the subject of love. I have favorited a few so that I can go back and find them later to include in this project. By the end of the project, I want to see what videos TikTok will recommend to me based on what I begin watching. Following this, I decided that for Spotify I would allow it to play every day for 3 hours. I will listen to three different mixes from three different artists that people often go to for music after getting out of relationships. On the last day, I will skip through one of the playlists and see what music Spotify decides to play for me. I decided that I wanted to make use of podcasts on Spotify because it seemed that Spotify heavily promoted podcasts. For these podcasts, I will play one relationship-related episode every day. My goal for the end of this project is to have the ability to determine if Spotify has an algorithm that will promote content related to my searches and listening preferences.
Day 1: April 23rd
Spotify:
I began by creating a Spotify account and decided that the name should be Eriksmithhhh. Spotify begins its customization by asking you a few questions to better understand your preferences. One of the questions asks the user to choose some of the artists and podcasts you are interested in. For the artists, I selected Noah Kahan, Taylor Swift, and Lana Del Ray, as I felt their discography complimented what I wanted Spotify to think about me. For podcasts, I selected only one, that being Emma Chamberlain's podcast as she frequently speaks on relationships. My plan for podcasts is to change the show each day so that I can better curate a history that resembles someone who recently got out of a relationship. After setting all of this up, I allowed a Noah Kahan Mix (which is curated for me by Spotify’s algorithm) to play. The playlist is three hours long and I will allow it to play all the way through.
TikTok:
I decided that for my first day, on Tiktok as Erik Smith, I would scroll for about 15 minutes and like only content related to relationships as that is what will be fresh on Erik’s mind. To begin with, TikTok gave me videos that were high in likes and marketable to most people using the app. After 15 minutes of scrolling, my for you page already appeared to change to the content I wanted it to.
Here are some of the Tiktoks I got: https://www.tiktok.com/@unrequitedfeelingsbook/photo/7354375490011942186 https://www.tiktok.com/@glennrob10/video/7343675023443447083
Day 2: April 24th
Spotify:
The next day, Spotify recommended more playlists similar to Noah Kahan, since that was all that I listened to the previous day. Other than that, there was not much that was noticeably different. The one thing I can infer about Spotify based on this is that Spotify bases its algorithm heavily on your time streaming. This day, I decided to search for a playlist about breaking up instead. I thought that I would get better results if the music I was listening to was curated, rather than relying on artists' full discographies.
Here is the playlist I settled on: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2seJbjcybfxfIK3gmssY17?si=f724f81d717844c3
In this playlist, there is a better mix of artists and a more curated selection of songs that I felt would give Spotify the idea better. This playlist is 24 hours long, but I am only going to play it for three hours.
TikTok:
TikTok continued to recommend more content based on what I had liked from the first day. One thing that did jump out to me was how it almost felt like TikTok was trying to figure out how my relationship ended, almost like it was investigating.
Here are some more TikToks that were recommended: https://www.tiktok.com/@ana.anaisss/video/7358648005836262698 https://www.tiktok.com/@graciellaspam/video/7332338085805444394
Day 3: April 25th
Spotify:
On Day 3 I found a playlist called “Sad Breakup Mix,” which I found to be significant for a few reasons. It was a playlist made for Erik by Spotify so it proved to me that Spotify was capable of predicting the situation Erik is in based on the music he selects. It also was perfect for me to be able to play into the algorithm, so I played it in full. The playlist was 2 hours and 49 minutes so a little short of my designated listening time.
TikTok:
On day 3 I continued scrolling and the content was relatively the same besides a few videos. I noticed that Tiktok had started to recommend videos to me that would encourage Erik to think that he was the problem. In other words, TikTok started to recommend toxic content. Things that encouraged a negative body image and a negative mindset. I assume the algorithm believed that these more depressing TikTok would generate more of a reaction from someone like Erik.
Here are some of those TikToks: https://www.tiktok.com/@.lucindio/video/7353063005594193185 https://www.tiktok.com/@az.jay/video/7329053514896854303 https://www.tiktok.com/@planetsaturn01/photo/7348833704661372161
Day 4: April 26th
Spotify:
Today I allowed the same playlist to play from Day 3. I felt it was the best option since I couldn’t find any other Spotify recommended playlist to fit what I wanted. Most of Spotify’s recommendations are radios for artists that Erik listens to or other artists similar to them. I did find a podcast to play called “The Break Up Break Down” which was all about relationships and I settled on an episode titled “When he calls after the break up…and makes it worse…” I thought it was the best option of the episodes I scrolled through.
TikTok:
I noticed Erik’s For You Page taking a turn to more contemplative and aesthetic content, similar to videos like this one: https://www.tiktok.com/@iyminal/video/7345423044833266987. I continued to get content that was toxic and content that was about relationships. By this point that was about all that was in my For You Page, instead of a mix of generally approved TikTok’s.
Here are some of those TikTok’s: https://www.tiktok.com/@userloverss3/photo/7338801532407696642 https://www.tiktok.com/@s5lock/video/7354804194433322282 https://www.tiktok.com/@ohkuvs/video/7344139180773068074
Final Day: April 27th
Spotify:
For the last day, I listened to the same playlist as the day before and another episode from the podcast from the day before. My findings are reported below.
TikTok:
On TikTok I just did the same this I had been doing. On this day Erik’s For You Page essentially stayed the same with more negative relationship content. One thing I found really interesting was a large amount of videos like this one: https://www.tiktok.com/@iyminal/video/7356151876469017898
It felt almost like TikTok was encouraging Erik into a melancholic state. I didn’t find the content to be toxic or encourage a negative mindset, but instead promoted reflection.
Here are a few more of the TikTok’s that showed up: https://www.tiktok.com/@iseenkris/video/7332960205983993131 https://www.tiktok.com/@alotofdamage/video/7243608412590755077 https://www.tiktok.com/@stuckkonearth/video/7338565458653924654
Summary:
Summary:
Spotify:
Spotify appeared to use my listening preferences to recommend new content, but it did not recommend the content I initially expected it would. I found that the best way to quantify if Spotify got the point was by looking at the “Discover Weekly” playlist, which generates new songs you have never listened to in a playlist every week. Here is what that looked like:
It is fair to assume that Spotify does not take into account lyrics when generating content for individuals. It seemed to me that the biggest factor in determining what to promote was the artist and popularity. On this playlist, there are songs from Taylor Swift (which if you remember I included in my like artists) and Sabrina Carpenter (who appeared to show up a lot). Aside from those the artists were names I had not yet seen in this project. People like Bruno Mars, One Direction, and Justin Beiber. Some of the songs were related to relationships, but only a few had a negative outlook as most were love stories. It seems to me that Spotify does not continue to recommend you the same kind of content over and over, and instead tries to broaden your horizons. That would explain the inclusion of popular songs and artists as this account is new. One thing I do believe Spotify uses to generate content that I had not initially suspected was searches. The day before I found the “Sad Breakup Mix” playlist I had searched for breakup playlists. Overall, Spotify’s algorithm is not as invasive as TikTok and primarily takes into account listening time, artists, popularity, and searches to promote content to the user.
TikTok:
TikTok was able to pick up on my content preferences almost immediately. After one day of scrolling, I had already started to get content related to Erik’s situation. TikTok began by giving me content that was popular and marketable to most demographics, but once I liked one or two TikTok’s about Erik’s spot in life, the For You Page began to flood with related content. Some of the recommended content appeared to be a bit toxic in nature. For example, videos talking negatively about body image, mental state, and blaming themselves for a failed relationship. I found this to be very interesting because it sacrifices morals for profit and interaction, something that I think should be changed. The impact that this kind of content might have on a person could be negative and detrimental to their image and in this case, Erik’s self-image and confidence. Some content was not negative, but the For You Page had an overall negative feel to it. Most of the content shown was meant to portray a certain feeling of melancholy and sadness. To summarize, TikTok is very quick to pick up on content preferences and will often suggest content that will get the most interaction, rather than content that might help an individual get over something they are going through.