Streaming algorithm is 'more likely to pick music by male artists'

A'widely-used' algorithm on streaming services including Spotify is more likely to recommend songs by male musicians than female musicians, a new study finds. European researchers who analysed the listening habits of 330,000 people over nine years found only 25 per cent of the artists ever listened to were female. When they tested the algorithm they found, on average, the first recommended track was by a man, along with the next six, and users had to wait until song seven or eight to hear a song by a woman. Stats have already suggested female artists don't get as much exposure as male artists – the 2020 Spotify Wrapped statistics showed that the top five most streamed artists were all male, with similar trends across all categories. 'We showed a widely used recommendation algorithm is more likely to pick music by male than female artists,' said study author Dr Christine Bauer at Utrecht University in a piece for the Conversation.