Musicologist Recently Appointed at UCLA Advocates for Fair Treatment of Artists in the Digital Music Realm Due to Algorithmic Bias
In the dynamic world of academia and the music industry, Tom Hodgson stands as a beacon of interdisciplinary excellence. With a doctorate from Oxford and a forthcoming book with Cambridge University Press, Hodgson is set to join the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music as an assistant professor of musicology in January 2023.
Hodgson's diverse career path has seen him head a music technology startup, play trumpet for the British indie-rock band Stornoway, and conduct field research in Azad Kashmir, Pakistan, studying the shehnai with Ustad Zulkifar Ali Khan. One of Stornoway's albums cracked the UK top twenty and sold more than 60,000 albums.
Hodgson's research in Pakistan revealed a DIY culture in the music industry, with no big labels or a pipeline of talent development like in London or Los Angeles. His work on the mystical unknowability of Kashmiri poetry found it gave Kashmiri migrants a space to articulate ambiguous senses of belonging. Hodgson's research also highlighted the significant role of YouTube in shaping musical interactions in the Global South.
Hodgson's expertise in music technology extends to the development of proprietary algorithms during his time at his startup. He also founded TIGMUS, an automated matchmaking service for musicians, venue operators, and promoters. His research at TIGMUS focused on how data and analytics can make the live music industry more equitable to musicians.
In his new role at UCLA, Hodgson is excited to continue his research on the music industry in Pakistan with his students and colleagues. The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music's musicology department supports critical scholarship and practical applications in the industry.
One of the key issues Hodgson might address is the impact of algorithms on music distribution. Algorithms play a crucial role in music distribution on streaming services like Spotify and YouTube, personalizing music recommendations based on user listening habits, preferences, and demographic data. This can lead to both benefits, such as discovery and exposure for new artists, and challenges, such as bias, homogenization, and unfair royalty distribution.
To address these issues, strategies might include algorithmic transparency, diversity and inclusion measures, and fair royalty distribution models. If Hodgson is indeed working on these issues, his approach might involve studying and improving these aspects of music distribution algorithms. However, specific information on his work remains to be seen.
Tom Hodgson's diverse career path includes development of proprietary algorithms for a music technology startup, founding TIGMUS, an automated matchmaking service for musicians, and research on the role of algorithms in music distribution on platforms like Spotify and YouTube. In his new role at UCLA, he might address the impact of algorithms on music distribution, potentially focusing on strategies like algorithmic transparency, diversity and inclusion measures, and fair royalty distribution models.
