Algorithmic Performance and Data Colonialism

Impacts of Musical Platformization on the Contemporary Cultural Imaginary

Abstract

In the context of algorithmic culture in which digital platforms operate under the aegis of the logic of data colonialism, significant transformations are observed in the processes of production, circulation and consumption of cultural goods. The platformized cultural capital resulting from the personalization of the “algorithmic” musical experience translates into new forms of interaction, the basis of a new cultural and economic order. The use of algorithms to determine our cultural choices points to a possible standardization of dominant patterns, which engender strategies of power, domination, commodification and homogenization, which can result in the loss of identity. In this sense, this study aims to investigate the intersections of algorithmic mediation in the provision of content on music streaming platforms and its possible consequences in the reconfiguration of the contemporary cultural imaginary. The theoretical framework seeks to highlight the displacement of the notion of mediation in the context of algorithmic culture and its tensions in the context of the consumption of cultural goods, emphasizing how data colonialism imposes control over cultural production and consumption through algorithms, which can affect cultural diversity, identity, and contemporary socialization processes. Descriptions, interpretations, inferences, and categorizations were made using interviews and content analysis. It was taken as an empirical reference to the music streaming platform Spotify. The results show that spotify operates under a marketing logic that has limited access to cultural diversity, causing users to seek strategies to try to subvert the logic of reproduction of dominant patterns of these platforms.