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This BuzzFeed Playlist-Makers feature is amazing.
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You should note how many of these playlist makers are journalists. Basically this is a form of music journalism.
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And wow is it easy to think of this as a counterpoint to the NYT "Be run by your readers" column that recently came out.
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"breathe intangible values into frictionless machines." "prolific experts"
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"creating difference in a market where everyone has more or less the same goods."
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Like BASICALLY THE ENTIRE PROBLEM of modern digital journalism, right there ^
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"playlists being the dominant mode of discovery in the near future ... more people are going to want to go to trusted playlists."
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Note how focused they are on providing representation of a wide variety of demographics.
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One successful curator "has a track record for being ahead of the curve"
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Small-batch, curation-focused, heavily user-tested, researched, but also instinctual. "policies in place to preserve editorial independence"
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It's even competing for subscription $$$. This is like reading an alternate reality of what journalism could've been buzzfeed.com/reggieugwu/the-unsung-heroes-of-the-music-streaming-boom?utm_term=.cekx0wAz1#.heawlyBJz
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"accounts for things like average play length, skips, and number of thumbs-up or thumbs-down" I want this in every newsroom.
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At Spotify: 'Many users are Latin, maybe we should have a Latin person pay special attention for them'. At NYT: publiceditor.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/01/29/in-a-time-of-racial-turmoil-why-change-course-on-covering-race/
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Google's playlists even structured like a newsroom, "20 full-time Google Play Music editors + an extensive network of freelance specialists"
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"Their value to companies like Google ... ultimately stems from firsthand insight into the ways people forge big and small identities..."
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"more about the way it makes you feel." Imagine, just imagine, a news org less about identity or politics, more about the it makes you feel?
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"existing, culturally adept, human-curated"
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Hold on, I'm cracking up because the description of the visit to Apple Music is hilarious.
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Such a good read.