The Algorithm That Actually Serves Artists (Instead of Addiction and Surveillance)

Melanie Bainbridge

4 minute read

Picture this: You open a streaming app in Perth and the first recommendations are artists from your own city. Not because some AI decided to manipulate your emotions for engagement metrics, but because the algorithm is deliberately designed to build community connections rather than shareholder profits.

Welcome to The Pack's discovery system, where technology serves cultural connection instead of cultural extraction. Where algorithms amplify local voices instead of burying them under avalanches of corporate-approved content designed to keep you scrolling indefinitely while harvesting your behavioural data for advertising revenue.

It's everything current streaming could be if it wasn't designed by tech bros optimising for addiction and surveillance capitalism.

Let me explain how current streaming algorithms actually work, because they're masterpieces of manipulation disguised as personalisation. They're not designed to help you discover great music - they're designed to keep you scrolling, clicking, and generating data that can be sold to advertisers while extracting maximum engagement time from your limited attention.

Spotify's algorithms prioritise music that keeps you engaged rather than music you might genuinely love. It amplifies content with high completion rates and replay frequency, favours tracks that lead to longer listening sessions, and promotes artists who can afford playlist placement deals. The result? You get recommendations optimised for platform profitability, not musical discovery or community connection.

You might stumble across music you like, but you'll never discover the brilliant artist from your own neighbourhood unless they've already achieved algorithmic visibility through expensive marketing campaigns. Spoiler alert: they can't afford it.

The Pack is here to fix it. Instead of global engagement metrics driving recommendations, geographic and cultural relevance takes priority. If you're streaming in Perth, The Pack's geofenced discovery works by first presenting Perth-based unsigned artists across all genres you enjoy. The second layer introduces WA regional artists, while the third layer brings in Australian artists who align with your musical taste (and maybe even some who stretch it… ooooohhh…). Smart integration ensures genre and mood filtering operates within geographic prioritisation, so when you're looking for new indie rock, you'll discover Perth indie bands first. When you want hip-hop, you'll find WA hip-hop artists.

This approach becomes transformative for regional Australia, where 45% of the population lives but receives maybe 10% of music industry attention. Regional listeners get genuine local scene discovery featuring artists from their own communities who they'd never find on Spotify. They discover regional circuit connections with bands from neighbouring towns, creating potential touring networks. Most importantly, they find cultural reflection through music that reflects their actual lived experience instead of urban or international content that feels disconnected from their daily reality.

When regional artists know their communities will discover them through local prioritisation, the incentive structure changes. Success becomes about building genuine community connection rather than chasing viral moments that may never come.

For First Nations artists, geofenced discovery offers something current platforms simply can't provide: cultural context and community control. Indigenous artists can benefit from cultural mapping that ties discovery to Country and community rather than generic "world music" categories that often misrepresent complex cultural traditions. Language prioritisation can ensure content in Indigenous languages gets surfaced to relevant communities. Cultural context can provide story and truth telling alongside musical content.

Most importantly, community control means First Nations communities help curate their own cultural representation rather than having it determined by algorithms trained on data that often excludes Indigenous perspectives. This is algorithmic decolonisation in action.

The Pack's community focus extends to Australia's 100,000 OneMusic-licensed businesses. Cafés, bars, gyms, hairdressers, retail shops, and restaurants could subscribe to business accounts that prioritise local artists in their venues. Walk into a Perth café and hear Perth artists. Shop in regional centres and discover regional talent. Work out at local gyms while supporting local musicians. Customers can tip artists directly through the platform, transforming passive background music consumption into active community cultural investment.

Here's what makes The Pack's approach genuinely revolutionary: it's not optimised for maximum engagement time. The Pack wants you to find music you love, and support the artists who created it.

Platform success gets measured by artist income sustainability rather than engagement addiction, community cultural connection rather than behavioural manipulation, local music scene development rather than global market domination, and user satisfaction rather than time-on-platform metrics.

Unlike corporate platforms that harvest user data for advertising profit, The Pack's cooperative model will ensure that data serves communities rather than shareholders. Community insights will allow local governments to understand their music ecosystems without invasive surveillance. Artist development will provide musicians with real-time feedback on their regional impact.

And… we could even ensure that cultural policy is evidence-based through interactions with genuine listening patterns. The Pack's geofenced data could transform how festivals and venues book artists by providing genuine community engagement metrics. Instead of relying on social media follower counts or streaming numbers that can be manipulated, bookers could see which artists have genuine local followings, where musicians have built dedicated fan bases, which acts could attract audiences from specific areas.

The Pack's discovery could incorporate genuine community curation. Local music champions could help identify emerging talent based on artistic merit rather than marketing budgets. Cultural curators could contribute to recommendations based on deep community knowledge. Democratic playlisting could allow subscriber voting on featured artists. Transparent criteria could provide clear explanation of how discovery algorithms work, unlike corporate platforms that deliberately obscure their systems.

Every time you use globalised streaming platforms, you're feeding algorithms designed to exploit your attention while enriching tech billionaires who view culture as data to be harvested, and you have absolutely no control over how that data is used, or how it impacts on the music community. Every recommendation gets optimised for platform profit, not musical discovery or community connection. But you can change this.

The Pack offers a genuine alternative - algorithms designed to connect you with your musical community, support local artists financially, and build cultural connections that strengthen communities rather than exploit them for corporate gain.

The Pack’s music revolution isn't just about fair payments - it's about reclaiming the technology that shapes our cultural lives.