Sick of your Spotify algorithm? Read this zine.
This post is part of a series of resources produced by our Student Interns in Fall 2025. The content does not necessarily reflect the official position of the organization
It’s the most wonderful time of the year: the release of Spotify Wrapped. But what if algorithms were not an inevitable part of how we listen to music? What role can librarians play in offering more human ways to discover music that are anchored in their community? Last summer, as part of my internship at Library Futures, I embarked on a journey to answer these questions.
TRACK 10: a librarian’s journey beyond the algorithm, out now from Library Futures, is the zine that resulted from this exploration. The zine takes the reader from Ringo, the first algorithmic music recommendation system built at MIT in 1994, to the new Luddites resisting harmful technology today. In the zine, I go on the ground to:
- revisit the music floor of Montreal’s Grande bibliothèque where I borrowed CDs in my early teens,
- explore the Edmonton Public Library’s community-curated streaming platform, and
- discover the early days of Spotify in Stockholm, Sweden.
With music from Natalie Imbruglia, the Beatles and Charli xcx, the zine is structured as a ten-track playlist. It invites the reader to reflect on their own relationship to music and imagine possible futures beyond corporate algorithms.
Note: TRACK 10 is best read in print. Feel free to print copies to share with friends, colleagues and patrons. You can also read the zine online, find text-based versions, listen to the playlist, and peruse sources and further reading.
About the Author
Thomas Gagnon-van Leeuwen (he/him) is a former lawyer and future librarian who is passionate about working for the common good. He graduated on the Dean’s Honor List from McGill University with joint LLB/BCL degrees in common and civil law. He is currently completing his Master of Information Science at Université de Montréal, where he also works the reference desk at the law library. Some of the important and fun things he’s done so far include coordinating picket lines in -40 degree weather, launching a weekly ukulele choir and joining his friends on remote canoe trips in the Canadian subarctic.
