Thinking slow and music from machines
Neologism #26, 25.01.2024
Think Slow
"A media ecosystem that focuses on engagement, vs. enlightenment, will get you to whatever conclusion sanctifies your beliefs."
"We are increasingly deferring to our gut and emotions, vs. slowing our thinking."
"Take a beat and you increase the likelihood of making a better decision."
The text draws heavily on the influence of Kahneman's works and books.
Read at profgalloway.com
18-Year Study Of 82,297 Adults Finds Cycle Commuting Halves Chance Of Early Death
"One of the best ways of extending life is available to almost all and it’s cheap: cycle commuting."
"Compared with sedentary commuting, commuting to work or study by bike was associated with lower all-cause mortality risk, lower risk of any hospitalization, lower risk of cardiovascular disease, lower risk of cancer mortality and better mental health."
"Those who regularly cycled—say, to work—were found to live longer."
Read more at Forbes
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The Ghosts in the Machine
Spotify’s plot against musicians
"Spotify, I discovered, not only has partnerships with a web of production companies, which, as one former employee put it, provide Spotify with 'music we benefited from financially,' but also a team of employees working to seed these tracks on playlists across the platform."
"The program’s name: Perfect Fit Content (PFC). The PFC program raises troubling prospects for working musicians."
"It puts forth an image of a future in which—as streaming services push music further into the background, and normalize anonymous, low-cost playlist filler—the relationship between listener and artist might be severed completely."
The article delves into the phenomenon of Spotify allegedly filling its playlists with stock music attributed to pseudonymous musicians, often referred to as ghost or fake artists. This is supposed to reduce royalty payouts to true artists. Spotify has a program called Perfect Fit Content (PFC) and relationship between listeners and artists could be abused. I think there's an easy and obvious thing we can do - stop listening to playlists! Seek out named jazz artists. Listen to your local jazz station. Go to jazz shows.
The Seeburg 1000 was a background music player sold to restaurants and stores. Like Musak, it was a service, but used a local player.
The music was recorded by Seeburg's own orchestra, using songs either in the public domain or for which they had purchased unlimited rights. Just like the modern "ghost artists". So this business model goes back to the 1950s (source).
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