I just turned on YouTube on “Smart TV” (on my parents’ place), put on some Molam (music genre from Laos and Thailand) mix video. It is set to move to next videos which is feature I normally have turned off by default on my PC. And it was first time in a long, long time, in years even, when I was positively surprised by recommendations of music on YouTube.
I have been complaining for years that back then, whenever it was, probably a decade ago already, I have been discovering new music, new sounds through recommendation algorithm on this platform. But something was broken and the algorithm usually was just giving me the same and same songs over and over again. And sure, I love some of them, most of them perhaps, so I wouldn’t mind to listen them again from time to time. But I also want discovery, a little bit of randomness, something that the algorithm seemed to lost. Even when it wraps me something new it is few and far between, usually still very close to what I already listen and quickly is brought in to the same roster that is looped.
But now, some magic happened and after that banger molam mix, I get huge range of goodness. Some of it was recollection from olden times, like some anime favorites (Turn A Gundam) or some Slavic folk rock, but nothing from loop of recent times. Some of it was actually a lot of new stuff, diverse music from around the world. Thai, Indonesian, as could be expected from initial video, but also Latin American, French, new Japanese song stylized visually and aurally at ‘90 alt rock, ancient Greece-Japanese fusion, and yes, a lot of Indian music too. But mostly new songs which don’t belong to my recent loop. I kinda regret that I didn’t note down some of songs and bands that I liked, but I was too busy finishing the book to stop and pay attention.
Perhaps it is my fault. In recent years I was obsessively listening almost exclusively to Indian music. But I swear that I had same complaints for years before my Indian obsession even started. Additionally, I had to work hard to coerce the algorithm to propose me new stuff in Indian music too. It has tendency to settle on the same repertoire and giving me same songs.
So why it didn’t happen this time? Why algorithms didn’t return to the loop of regurgitating recent favorites? Maybe it’s just fluke that won’t repeat any time soon, or maybe something changed with the algorithm. Hopefully it is the latter.
Speaking of good changes to algorithm. I don’t want to jinx it and summon angry spirits of YouTube to change something that probably is glitch in the system, but I recently didn’t see any ads on Smart TV YouTube app. I remember just a half year ago when I started to live with my parents for the time of my reconvalescence that I was driven mad with constant long unskippable ads. I was used to listening YouTube with adblock on PC so it was hard to adjust. I didn’t figured out if it’s even possible to get adblock on those newfangled TVs.
I don’t have thesis here. It is so far one time, one anecdote. I don’t think it’s a time already to celebrate that enshittification, which is so eloquently described by Cory Doctorow, somehow was reversed. But just once, I was happy that this one time I recaptured the feeling I had while using this platform a decade or so ago.