Ancestry, the world’s largest for-profit genealogy company (previous leader: Nazi Germany) announced recently a partnership with music service Spotify to determine your “musical DNA” based on actual DNA tests.
Yes, that’s right.
This will “encourage [Ancestry’s] audience to explore the soundtrack of their heritage,” said Danielle Lee, global head of partner solutions at Spotify, in an interview with the digital site Quartz.
Thousands of people have already opted in for the service, which – to the credit of Ancestry and Spotify – is voluntary and requires you to input your own DNA. So far, since our experience tells us that large companies are wildly reckless with our information. Do you really think your DNA information is secret? Or music playlists are secret?
An aside: My musical tastes would be humiliating if I didn’t revel in them. No one would mistake my Spotify lists of teen pop music (David Cassidy to Brittney Spears to the Jackson 5) or even hip-hop (harmless 1980s rappers) with that of a respectable music fan. And don't get me started on my “cocktail party” list that includes Glen Campbell, Herb Alpert, Andy Williams and the Carpenters.
But getting back to the earlier point. There are three big questions here:
• Do you trust Ancestry and Spotify with your information?
• Does your DNA actually determine what kind of music you like?
• Is this a bad idea?
The first question has likely already been answered. You, like me, may not really care if anyone knows your DNA history and your musical tastes. But once you asked a website to find out your ancestry or start compiling online music lists, you ran that risk.
The second question strikes me as more significant. Does our DNA determine our musical tastes? If my presumably bland, western European DNA suggests I would prefer artists like Andy Williams, Herb Alpert, Glen Campbell and the Carpenters . . . hey, wait a minute!
The opposite argument: Should someone with my DNA like Stevie Wonder, Ray Parker Jr. and Earth, Wind and Fire? Or Wham! and Hall and Oates? Is it possible that those preferences aren’t so much a result of my DNA as when and where I grew up?
The same is probably true for you, too. Your favorite type of music may be representative of your genetic background, but I’d guess that you were raised listening to that kind of music. Or (like me and country music) you were raised with a style of music that you completely rejected.
That’s part of the magic of music. We’re not limited in what we can like. We can be Cuban and like European classical music. We can be from Russia and like American rhythm-and-blues. We can be from Canada and . . . well, Canadians are so nice they like everything.
But this move seems like a stretch for Ancestry and Spotify, although it’s one that makes sense in a brand-promoting way (it got an article in Quartz and I’m writing about it), but still a stretch.
Is this a bad idea? I don’t know, but as the Carpenters (bland, suburban western Europeans like me) once sang, we should just “sing a song.”
Oh, hey, Earth, Wind and Fire had a song by that title, too!
Reach Brad Stanhope at bradstanhope@hotmail.com.
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