Eric Neumann, blog
“The larger the group, the more toxic, the more of your beauty as an individual you have to surrender for the sake of group thought.” --George Carlin
During the 1970s, Yale professor, Janis Irving, studied several historical events concerning the effects of group decision-making. This decade of research would later form the basis for the continually studied phenomenon known as “groupthink.”
Groupthink happens when, in order to achieve a larger goal, groups of individuals succumb to a collective idea--whether or not they agree or are even aware of it.
It was groupthink that led to the demise of the once prominent but now defunct Swissair. During its heyday (coincidentally during the same decade(s) that Irving was forming the theory of groupthink), Swissair was known as the “Flying Bank” due to its unmatched economic stability. But expanding the company too quickly while downsizing the industrial expertise of its executive board stretched the company too thin, and Swissair eventually collapsed. Its executive board became more homogenous and lacked the pushback that differing opinions would have provided, while hubris blinded the company from larger world order.
While not all scenarios of groupthink cause companies to crumble and nations to suffer, it’s handicapping many industries.
My focus in particular is music streaming. With the continuing decline of album sales and digital downloads, the music industry has had to rethink its role in music delivery and discovery. The competitors in this space all approach streaming in a slightly different way. Services like Spotify and Rdio offer on-demand listening and allow you to listen to playlists created by other users, while services like Pandora, Slacker and iHeart Radio use the binary thumbs-up, thumbs-down approach to arrive at a more narrowed playlist. Each, in a different way, relies on a “what’s good for one, must be good for all” approach to recommending music.
The problem with groupthink in music is that it assumes a general “best fit” selection of songs based on mathematical correlations, which is akin to applying calculus to a painting. There is no accounting for the role that emotions play (consciously or not) in our music tastes. This approach may satisfy some for a bit, but it yields obvious choices at the expense of deeper cuts, forgotten gems or lesser-known artists. As a result, listeners burn out on these rather predictable playlists.
The future of digital music is bright. In fact, paid subscriptions are currently bringing in $371 million, up 23 percent from 2013. I believe there’s room for vast growth, and the next phase of music discovery will center on platforms that are tailored to the individual—waving goodbye to the days of playlists driven by groupthink.
In a poignant podcast from a16z’s Balaji Srinivasan, several people discussed the dawning of the end of ownership—where access to services and products trumps ownership. Music is not immune to this shift. Consumers are focusing less on owning the music they love and, instead, want access to a wide library of artists, albums and songs that they love and would love to discover. This brings rise to the opportunity to deliver a music-streaming platform that speaks to each individual’s unique personality, and that is where the rubber will meet the road on the way to true personalized music that caters to the next generation.
Eric Neumann is founder of Mad Genius Radio.
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