Music streaming, cultural consumption and the everyday routines of algorithm management: Exploring how trust and objective setting shape everyday encounters with algorithmic systems

Algorithms are often understood to be a powerful presence in shaping everyday life. In particular, the established part that algorithmic recommendations play in cultural consumption is important in shaping what people consume and how tastes are formed. Understanding how users of platforms respond and react to algorithmic processes is crucial for understanding cultural consumption today. This article draws upon semi-structured and detailed interviews with music listeners located in Mexico to explore the way that music streaming recommendations are encountered. The article argues that trust and objective setting are important for understanding how individual listeners seek to manage these recommendation systems. The article shows how everyday routines of algorithmic management are established and how listeners actively shape the algorithmic outcomes and recommendations to which they are exposed.