Reprogramming Music Systems for Data Justice
This year at Primavera Pro 2025, DigitalFems takes the stage to challenge how data shapes power in the music industry. Through two key sessions, we present the work behind GenderMusicTech, our European research and policy project that seeks to reprogram music systems for data justice.
🔹 June 4, 11:15–11:30 – Ideas Showroom, CCCB
In this fast-paced presentation, we introduced the critical role of gender metadata in shaping algorithmic recommendations. When metadata lacks gender perspective, streaming platforms replicate inequality—promoting the same male-dominated profiles and making diversity appear as a decorative gesture rather than structural change.
GenderMusicTech aims to change that. This initiative isn’t about exposing identities—it’s about creating secure, consent-based systems where artists can decide whether to contribute gender data for a fairer, more inclusive digital ecosystem. As we said on stage:
“If gender is not encoded in the metadata, it becomes invisible—and what’s invisible cannot be recommended, counted, or valued.”
🔹 June 6, 12:45–13:45 – Auditori Panel Debate
We moderated a panel titled Blind Algorithms – The Invisible Bias in Music Metadata, organized by UFi and APECAT. With guests from music curation, AI ethics and digital activism, we explored:
– What are metadata and why do they matter?
– Can recommendation systems become tools for equity instead of exclusion?
– How do we embed feminist and queer values into tech infrastructures?
🎙️ Panelists included Roser Batlle (MTG-UPF), Javier Lorbada, and Cori Chinicci (BMAT).
Together with The F-List for Music, and feminist leaders like Dr. Metka PotoÄŤnik and Vick Bain, we continue building bridges between digital justice and the music world.
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