Stop Letting The Algorithms Decide What I Listen To

My Spotify subscription expired a few days ago.

Staring at that renewal reminder, I suddenly realized something: I haven’t truly “enjoyed” music in months, or even years. Monday’s Discover Weekly, Friday’s Release Radar—going through them felt like checking off a to-do list. Listen, forget, repeat.

Honestly, opening these playlists feels like pulling a slot machine. That anticipation of maybe discovering an amazing new track is addictive. But you know what? Constantly, constantly, constantly listening to new songs is exhausting my brain. I can’t even remember the last song that made me want to hit repeat.

What’s scarier is that these “personalized for you” playlists are starting to sound like different versions of the same song.

When Taste Becomes Data

Everyone’s listening to APT right now, right? Open any music platform, and there it is. Not saying it’s a bad song, but when everyone’s listening to the same thing, is music still personal taste?

I was at a coffee shop recently when the background music made me pause. Wait, isn’t this from my playlist? Then the second song, the third… Hold on, why does this entire playlist match my taste so perfectly?

That’s when it hit me: my supposedly unique music taste is just the standard recipe algorithms feed everyone.

We live in an algorithm-fed era:

Listening to chart-toppers. Watching algorithm-recommended videos. Reading five-star books. Using five-star products. Even Google search results are algorithm-determined.

The result? Our tastes are becoming increasingly homogeneous. Like robots, we’re just a fraction of the top artists’ listening numbers. Ironically, our music listening time has become a tool for others to make money. That’s how Spotify distributes royalties—play count determines everything. The internet was supposed to give everyone an equal voice, but it’s actually created an even worse “wealth gap.”

Those niche but brilliant creations? We never encounter them anymore. Unless they suddenly catch the algorithm’s favor and instantly become not-so-niche. Remember all those songs only a few thousand people knew that suddenly blew up on TikTok and were everywhere? But that’s still just a tiny fraction. In the coming era where everyone’s a creator, 99.99% of created works might never get heard.

I did a little experiment recently—turned off my YouTube watch history. Surprisingly, I had no idea what to watch. Without algorithmic guidance, I was like a lost child. It’s ironic—we’ve lost the ability to actively choose.

Is the Album Dead?

Remember what listening to music used to be like?

I still remember listening to every Jay Chou album over and over. Fantasy, The Eight Dimensions, Ye Hui Mei—I knew what came next the moment each intro started. My classmates could sing every song, not just the singles but even the ones without music videos.

Back then, finishing an album was a ritual. Those intros, interludes, outros—they were all carefully crafted experiences by the artists. An entire album was like a complete story with narrative arc and emotional journey.

Now? We only listen to singles. Skip the intro, straight to the chorus. No patience for three minutes, let alone an entire album. APT is only 2 minutes and 49 seconds—perfectly capturing modern culture’s impatience.

Are musicians still carefully arranging albums? Maybe. But in the streaming era, who cares? Everyone just adds the viral hit to their playlist.

The Vinyl Temptation (and Rational Resistance)

For a moment, I considered buying vinyl.

Imagine: beautiful artwork, substantial weight, the ritual of placing the needle. Sounds cool, right? But thinking rationally, isn’t this just showing off taste? Honestly, with my tin ears, I can’t tell the difference between vinyl and digital.

What’s more contradictory is that I don’t even buy physical books anymore—switched entirely to e-books. Why? Because physical media is just the carrier; content is what matters. CDs are the same—just a medium for accessing digital files. Buying a bunch of physical collections just means more dust at home and more hassle when moving. These are all material possessions.

Instead of spending money on carriers, better to set up my computer as a proper music listening environment.

Taking Back Control

When Spotify expired, I didn’t renew.

I downloaded Swinsian (a simple music player for Mac) and found my dozen favorite albums of all time. No algorithms, no recommendations, just me and the music.

Listening to Mouse on the Keys’ Anxious Object from start to finish for the first time. God, it’s beautiful—what have I been missing? Those instrumentals I skipped, those spaces between tracks, the transitions between songs—they all had meaning. The algorithm would never recommend this entire album to me, and mixed with other fresh singles, I’d never have the patience to listen.

Then Spangle Call Lilli Line’s even more obscure early albums. No streaming platform would recommend these because the data doesn’t look “good.” But to me, these are treasures.

Amazingly, when I stopped chasing new songs, I rediscovered what made me love music in the first place. That feeling of playing a song to death, until every note is etched in memory.

Reclaiming the Ability to Choose

Turning off algorithms isn’t about returning to the Stone Age. I still use streaming services (like the evil YouTube) to discover new music. The difference is, now I know what I’m doing.

I want to become someone who can sit down and listen to “albums” again. While everyone’s chasing the next new song, I’m revisiting Japanese post-rock from 2007. Not to be different, but because it’s what “I” want to hear.

Taste shouldn’t be the result of data analysis. It should be accumulated from countless active choices, traces left from time spent exploring, experimenting, even making mistakes.

Next time an algorithm tells you “you might like” a book, video, article, or song, ask yourself: Is this really what I want? Or just what the algorithm wants?

Maybe it’s time to take back control. Don’t let every minute of your music listening become a tool for someone else’s profit.

P.S. If you want to try this too, don’t rush to cancel all your subscriptions. Start small: this week, find an album you haven’t heard in ages and listen from first track to last. Don’t skip, don’t check your phone. Just listen.

Trust me, you’ll discover some forgotten beauty. Or find that album you loved in high school—you can probably still sing every song.