C21MP/MOCReN Collaborative Research Challenge

Algorithms underpin most of the recommendation-based digital environments we inhabit, which recent media theory has framed as machine habitus (Airoldi 2022, p. 28). This habitus is at work in every choice we make, shaping the incremental acts of (in)dividuation that construct our ‘algorithmized selves’ (cf. Prey, 2018; Bhandari & Bimo, 2022). In the musical sphere, algorithms constitute a key dimension of artists’ ‘music platform imaginaries’ (Muchitsch et al., 2025, p.36), which shape how musicians make strategic choices regarding the production and promotion of their work. Listeners, too, are made spectacularly aware of their machine habitus through ‘algorithmic events’ like the annual Spotify Wrapped (Annabell & Rasmussen 2025) and develop folk theories of algorithmic recommendation that allow them to project different forms of power and resistance in relation to these systems (Siles et al., 2022, p.13).

Practical knowledge of how these black-boxed technologies work is largely confined to software engineers and tech corporations, and their musico-social consequences are poorly understood. To address this gap, this research challenge invites postgraduate and early career researchers—whether artists, fans or listeners—to reflexively hack, retrain and otherwise intervene with the algorithms on their chosen music platform in order to examine how they configure (their role in) our musical lives. 

The Research Challenge is a format developed by the 21st Century Music Practice (C21MP) Research Centre to explore a particular research problem by coming at it from a variety of different directions. This is the fifth Research Challenge in an ongoing series exploring a wide range of musical practices, and focuses on our everyday online musical lives in collaboration with the Music and Online Cultures Research Network (mocren.org)

We envision that the main research phase will consist of three parts and employ primarily qualitative and practice research methods:

1. Observation: get to know your recommendation algorithm. 
   • Where does it take you? 
   • What kinds of behaviour does it nudge you towards or discourage you from? 
   • Who does it think you are?
2. Retraining: set out a new trajectory. 
   • What can you do to exit a loop? 
   • Which actions yield tangible results? 
   • Who do you want to be?
3. Interpretation: map the process. 
   • What did it take to enact meaningful change? 
   • Did you encounter resistance? 
   • Who have you become?

Any streaming (Spotify, Soundcloud, etc.) or media sharing (YouTube, TikTok) platform can be selected as the primary field site. You are encouraged to consider data collection and analysis methods that are appropriate for the interface and features of the platform you are focusing on. As such, the outcomes of the challenge are likely to be both theoretical and methodological. No approaches are beyond the remit of this challenge but, in the spirit of MOCReN and the C21MP network, the focus should be on interpretive, playful and reflexive methods and robust, ground-up theorisation.  

What does the challenge involve? 

• You create a 10-minute video documenting the algorithm observation, retraining and interpretation process, including an initial reflection on why you chose this use case and approach. Videos should offer a level of detail that would allow a viewer to follow your experience, but can be stylized to suit your own creativity and preferred level of ‘on camera’ comfort (i.e. making use of voiceovers, animations, straight-to-camera vlogging etc). 
• You are paired with another participant and exchange videos.
• You explore their method in relation to your own practice and create a second 10-minute response video, including an explanation of how you adapted the method and any notable results.
• You watch your partner’s response to your method.
• Both partners meet for a 20-minute video discussion of the research process and key findings.
• The three videos are compiled into a 60-minute research output and published by C21MP/MOCReN as a jointly-authored, DOI-allocated, peer-reviewed practice research publication via the UK’s JISC Octopus.ac system. 
• All research challenge participants meet for an online discussion with invited guest speakers and audience to interpret what the exchange revealed.

To participate, please submit a 200 word proposal which outlines your approach for the first phase of the Challenge. Which platform will be your primary field site? What will be your strategy for the initial process of observation, retraining and interpretation? What theoretical and conceptual work informs and helped you to shape that strategy and how? The proposal submission deadline will only be extended in exceptional circumstances as it will affect the entire timeline (see below). Submit proposals to researchchallenge@c21mp.org by the end of the day in whichever time zone you are in on 24th July 2026.

Timeline

24 July 2026: Proposal submission deadline.

10 August 2026: Initial research phase begins.

28 September 2026: First videos submitted and shared with collaborators.

19 October 2026: Second videos submitted and shared with collaborators.

16 November 2026: Final 60-minute video submitted (2 x 10-min initial research; 2 x 10-min response, 1 x 20-min pair discussion). 

30 November 2026 Online publication of edited, joint-authored video outputs.

Mid-December 2026: All-group online discussion and celebration of research challenge findings.

Ethics

Because participants are co-authors of the published output, they are responsible for their own ethics approval process. All participants will sign a contributor agreement covering data handling (where appropriate), consent, and publication rights. Participants will retain ownership of the material and agree to it being published on the UK’s JISC Octopus.ac site and the C21MP.org website under a Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 licence.

Work cited

— Airoldi, M. (2022). Machine Habitus: Toward a Sociology of Algorithms. Polity.

— Annabell, T., & Rasmussen, N. V. (2025). An algorithmic event: The celebration and critique of Spotify Wrapped. New Media & Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448251391301 

— Bhandari, A., & Bimo, S. (2022). Why’s Everyone on TikTok Now? The Algorithmized Self and 

the Future of Self-Making on Social Media. Social Media + Society, 8(1). 

https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051221086241

— Muchitsch, V., Moura, L. A., & Perevedentseva, M. (2025). Swimming Upstream? Independent Musicians and Music Platform Imaginaries. Journal of Popular Music Studies, 37(4), 19–41. https://doi.org/10.1525/jpms.2025.37.4.19

— Prey, R. (2018). Nothing Personal: Algorithmic Individuation on Music Streaming Platforms. Media, Culture & Society, 40(7), 1086–1100. https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443717745147

— Siles, I., Segura-Castillo, A., Solís, R., & Sancho, M. (2020). Folk theories of algorithmic recommendations on Spotify: Enacting data assemblages in the global South. Big Data & Society, 7(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/2053951720923377 

Research Challenge Co-ordinators:

Maria Perevedentseva (University of Salford, MOCReN)

Simon Zagorski-Thomas (University of West London, C21MP)