A fascinating look at how the subtle incentives created by systems and technologies can have major impacts on the world we experience:

Chart topping tracks are becoming shorter, less melodically diverse and more lyrically repetitive. But perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised. Research has found that a smaller number of superstars make up a greater share of ticket sales, that each year the top 100 chart is made up of fewer artists, and that fewer songwriters are responsible for writing the tracks that put them there. In other words, fewer producers are writing songs for fewer artists to perform… The shift to streaming has caused the industry’s commercial interests to outweigh its creative ones.

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