Working Paper: NBER ID: w29017
Authors: Luis Aguiar; Joel Waldfogel; Sarah B. Waldfogel
Abstract: 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.
Keywords: platform bias; music industry; Spotify; independent labels; gender bias
JEL Codes: K21; L12; L82
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Higher playlist ranks (Y70) | Increased streaming success (L82) |
| New music ranks (Y10) | Streaming success for independent-label music (L82) |
| New music ranks (Y10) | Streaming success for music by women (L82) |
| Independent-label music (Y92) | Streaming success (L82) |
| Music by women (J16) | Streaming success (L82) |
| Curators' assessments of commercial promise (Z11) | Streaming performance (L82) |