Why Is There Barely Any LGBTQ+ Representation In Spotify Wrapped Lists This Year?
Image: Photos: chappellroan & billieeilish / Instagram
Spotify Wrapped – the most wonderful time of the year for those who want to look back on what they listened to. For some it’s a day to cringe at the one song they had on repeat for a period of their lives, for others it’s a day to proudly gloat at their niche and obscure tastes in music. But for many LGBTQIA+ people, this Spotify Wrapped was a day to ask “where are we on the list?”.
Each year on the day of Spotify Wrapped, the most streamed artists and songs around the world are revealed. While the most streamed artist in America was Taylor Swift, it’s notable that there were no other women on that list, nor were there any LGBTQIA+ artists mentioned at all.
However controversial men like Kanye West, who has been known to ally with President-Elect Donald Trump and spew all kinds of dogmatic, antisemitic rhetoric, and Kendrick Lamar who in his song, ‘Auntie diaries’, used a homophobic slur ten times, made the list. These men are who streaming services have chosen over queer women artists, this is what Spotify considers worthwhile to the platform.
The most streamed song list was marginally less dismal, with one straight woman, Sabrina Carpenter, and two queer women, Chappell Roan and Billie Eilish. However it’s still off-putting that out of a list of 10 songs 70% of them were made by straight men.
How we find (or get suggestions for) music in Australia
In Australia, the number one most streamed artist was Taylor Swift, with Billie Eilish in fourth place. Since the lists are decided by streaming numbers, it would be fair to assume that LGBTQIA+ artists have lucked out in a majority rule situation. However, that assumption doesn’t consider what makes the majority’s music tastes tick.
According to the New York based research firm, Luminate, 41% of Australians find new music through streaming services like Spotify. A common way of finding music on spotify is by perusing the algorithm based playlists known as mixes. These playlists contain music that the user already listens to, as well as recommendations from the algorithm. If Spotify decides to promote a specific artist, the user will be bombarded with that artist’s music in their mixes and in other algorithm based recommendations.
What this means is that the platform has more power over who makes it into their lists than what meets the eye. It makes no sense that women and queer artists aren’t being represented more in the data Spotify broadcasts, when there are a vast amount of famous artists in these categories with promotable music.
Should Spotify be doing more to champion LGBTQIA+ representation in music?
While it is an unfortunate fact that women and LGBTQIA+ artists do not receive the same acclaim that straight men do in the music industry, Spotify should be doing more to platform diversity where they can.
The lists are a reflection not only of the average listener’s disregard for what women and the LGBTQ community bring to the music table, but also of the way in which spotify has clearly chosen to feed into this disregard so as not to challenge people’s existing listening habits.
Platforms have stuck with a formula that makes them vast profits, but also limits the reach of those who challenge the mainstream to the point that many artists consider the Algorithms these sites use to be more of a strangling force than a helpful tool to progress as musicians.
If Spotify wants to consider itself a platform that champions musical diversity, then it should at the very least have data to show for such a claim. It isn’t unreasonable when women and the LGBTQIA+ community has contributed unquantifiable amounts to music across various genres that listeners should be able to expect more recognition for these artists labour.
There are LGBTQ women making music that are worthy of as much praise as what the men in the industry are getting, however these artists are not receiving the same attention that others in the industry are and until streaming platforms promote these artists as much as they promote straight men, this problem will not be fixed.
