Editorial Bias and Filtr, Digster & Topsify

This is a big subject and in some ways this article will pose more questions than answers but it's one I'm asked regularly

"do you pitch songs to Filtr, Digster, Topsify?"

The answer is of course yes. But there's a caveat. Filtr is Sony, Digster (now called HITS) is Universal and Topsify is what was playlists.net and owned by Warner Music Group.

A quick peruse of the playlists on these channels show that the number of tracks that aren't the label groups own repertoire are minimal.. take for instance Filtr's new music playlist which is 90% Sony  with about 10% from UMG and other artists where Sony are the label in the US, e.g Adele's Hello being included which is released and marketed by Columbia in the USA but XL in the UK.

So although a user might see 'Future Dance Anthems' playlist, what they're actually being fed is a small percentage of the music that could actually be the top dance hits because for instance Topsify will likely have a policy to not add UMG/Indie/Sony songs or others to their lists, focussing 90+% on their owned repertoire.

A decent and increasing wedge of marketing money is being set aside and spent on playlist marketing and users of Spotify , Apple and Deezer on these playlists will be getting a list picked from a limited range.

This is why, unlike Apple, it's good that both Deezer and Spotify are focussed on making User playlists available to find on search. Yes user playlists will be biased but without the pressure of a corporate decision to only include tracks from a small pool of choice.

Do users care or even know that often channels that don't explicitly say who is curating them, and deliberately exclude songs to the detriment of that list?

Many of the main channels have built up their followings with big marketing pushes funded by hefty budgets, but the cost is sometimes authenticity.