Music recommendations are increasingly part of the listening
experience of people all over the world, especially
in the context of streaming services. In this scenario, recommender
systems’ role is to help users in finding music
that can fit their interests and tastes. However, Westerncentric
perspectives in systems’ design are often subject
to criticisms because of their power of reinforcing already
existing cultural bias and therefore potentially impacting
negatively on the music distribution ...
Music recommendations are increasingly part of the listening
experience of people all over the world, especially
in the context of streaming services. In this scenario, recommender
systems’ role is to help users in finding music
that can fit their interests and tastes. However, Westerncentric
perspectives in systems’ design are often subject
to criticisms because of their power of reinforcing already
existing cultural bias and therefore potentially impacting
negatively on the music distribution mechanisms. In our
research proposal, we aim to address the problem of assessing
the impact of music recommendation diversity, or
the lack thereof. This requires 1) the formalization of a
working definition of diversity in the music field 2) the development
of evaluation practices for estimating diversity
in the context of music recommender systems 3) the observation
of emerging impact due to music recommendation
diversity 4) the proposal of countermeasures for mitigating
negative or reinforcing positive impact observed. Basing
on already known consequences of information technologies
in political, economic and social areas, our goal is
to understand the cultural impact that music recommender
systems can have on our society.
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