You Have Not Yet Heard Your Favourite Song

‘I was impressed, almost despite myself, by the speculative arguments of former Spotify data analyst Glenn McDonald in You Have Not Yet Heard Your Favourite Song (Canbury, £19.09). He’s a smart thinker, and a passionate advocate for the creative and cultural opportunities opened up by our new world of streaming.’ – Neil McCormick, Music Books of the Year, Telegraph.co.uk‘A fascinating read that takes you through music’s rapid progression into the streaming age.’ – Chartmetric‘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. And you will be highly entertained and amused in the process.’ – Joseph Menn, Washington Post staff writer and author of All the Rave: The Rise and Fall of Shawn Fanning’s Napster.‘Throughout McDonald’s book, personal anecdotes and his own love of music spill out in witty, conversational prose. Even chapters that delve into streaming’s complex finances – unsurprisingly, your £15 monthly fee does not go directly to your favourite artist, but is split between that month’s “most streamed,” meaning that megastars such as Swift and Ed Sheeran stay at the top of the pyramid – are told in layman’s terms.’ Poppie Platt, The Daily Telegraph ‘It’s a history of the streaming era, written by someone who made history in the streaming era. Reading this book is the next best thing to having an in-depth, impassioned, hours-long fika with Glenn McDonald about music and culture and all of the most burning topics of our time… but, I’d be lying. It’s even better. This book is a true behind-the-scenes examination of our culture and our industry from the perspective of someone who was in the thick of it from the beginning.’ Meg Tarquinio, PhD, Spotify/Twitch/Nettwerk Music Group‘We used to sell CDs by the weight of pallets, thanks to streaming we know how our content is consumed. In this immersive book, Glenn has demonstrated what we can do with this knowledge, so other industries facing their Napster Moment can learn from his unrivalled first mover advantage’ – Will Page, author of Pivot and former Chief Economist of Spotify‘McDonald makes complicated topics such as algorithmic recommender systems and royalty models easily digestible to a non-specialist audience with prose that is approachable and frequently funny. The book targets curious listeners and music enthusiasts rather than artists, academics, or industry experts, but McDonald’s insider perspective still offers plenty to those well acquainted with the current state of streaming… for anyone interested in how streaming services are changing the business and culture of music, this book is a compelling – if occasionally idealistic – peek behind the curtain from someone who helped build the biggest one in the world. – The Quietus

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 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 offers occasional commentary on this, and various other digressions. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.