Glenn McDonald

Glenn McDonald is a software engineer, algorithm designer,
music evangelist and former long-time Data Alchemist at
Spotify, the world’s biggest music streaming service. From the 1990s, he was one of the earliest and most prolific explorers of how to use data to understand and amplify our collective and individual experiences of music. His work at the US music intelligence startup The Echo Nest helped bring about its 2014 acquisition by Spotify, which put him at the algorithmic heart of streaming music and the listening habits of 500 million people. His website Every Noise at Once (everynoise.com) has an unprecedented computational map of the world’s music genres, and a large and growing variety of other tools for exploring music and joy. His personal blog (furia.com) offers occasional commentary on this, and various other digressions. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Author's books

You Have Not Yet Heard Your Favourite Song

If you want to know anything about how music surfaces today, how to find it, or how to create it, you will find what you need right here.’ Joseph Menn, Washington Post writer

 

For the first time in history, almost every song ever recorded is available instantly. Everywhere.

 

This book charts what music’s dazzling digital revolution really means for fans and artists. As a former data guru at the world’s biggest streaming service, Spotify, Glenn McDonald reveals:

 

What the tech giants know about you
How they serve up your next song
Whether fans can cheat the algorithm
Whether jazz is dead and ASMR is the new punk
Your chances of becoming a rock star

 

Having analysed the streams of 500 million people, McDonald explores what the data tells us about music and about ourselves, from the secrets of russelåter in Norway to Christmas in the Philippines. Statistically, you have not yet heard your lifetime’s favourite song. This book will take you on a voyage of discovery through music’s fast-flowing new waters.

 

10 bonus playlists of wonder included!