The Role of Fairness and Diversity in User Choices and Perceptions of Music Playlists

Abstract

Nowadays, most listeners access music through streaming platforms, which has transformed how recommendations are delivered and received. Notable work has been done on improving fairness for end users or item providers in music recommender systems, often applying pre-processing and re-ranking approaches. However, the positive influence users may exert on fairness through their music selection has not been sufficiently studied. This paper explores whether providing users with insights into the fairness and diversity of recommendations could lead to fairer music selections. To this aim, we conducted a qualitative study with 18 participants involving a think-aloud playlist task and in-depth interviews. The results indicate that while music taste was the deciding factor in participants’ choices, insights into fairness did help them reflect on their selections. Our study shows that participants’ playlist choices at times conflict with their expressed fairness values, highlighting the need to support users in aligning decisions with their values.