4 April 2025
DiscoverabilityThis project examines the discoverability of francophone music content in the era of streaming, combining a qualitative study conducted with listeners in France and Québec with an experimental audit of Spotify’s recommendation algorithm. It explores how individuals encounter francophone music in their daily listening practices, and to what extent editorial or algorithmic recommendation tools truly shape this exposure.
The results show that platform recommendations are only one pathway among many: discovery relies primarily on musical socialization, peers, radio, and everyday listening contexts. The algorithmic analysis reveals no significant geographic bias, but does highlight a slight linguistic bias favoring English-language content, a pattern that becomes more pronounced when users re-listen to recommended tracks.
By shedding light on the sociotechnical mechanisms that govern the circulation of local works, the project helps deepen our understanding of the conditions shaping the visibility of francophone music and the contemporary challenges of cultural pluralism online.
News
4 April 2025
Algorithmic recommendations and music discoverability: New report available
DiscoverabilityLatest Podcasts & Videos
Perspectives and the Future of the Creative Economy
23 March 2026
Students from CREAT share their perspectives and research. From regional culture to the arts and health, as well as digital creativity and discoverability, these intersecting viewpoints offer an inspiring glimpse into the future of the creative economy and its impact on collective well-being.
Understanding the challenges of discoverability to make music accessible
16 March 2026
At the intersection of migration trajectories and Québec’s cultural ecosystems, this episode explores the priorities that should guide efforts around discoverability. Caroline Marcoux-Gendron, Affiliated Professor at the Université du Québec à Montréal, and Romuald Jamet, Associate Professor at INRS, discuss the distinctive features of Québec’s music landscape: its linguistic, institutional, and cultural dynamics, as well as the recognition biases that affect, among others, artists from immigrant backgrounds.
CREATivity in Action: Stories of Digital Practices
9 March 2026
Digital creativity is transforming the ways we produce and interact. Two researchers from CREAT—Philippe Vaucher, professor in the Unité d’enseignement et de recherche en création et nouveaux médias at the Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue (UQAT), and Louis-Philippe Rondeau, also a professor at the École des arts numériques de l’animation et du design at the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi (NAD/UQAC)—shed light on current innovations in this field.