Unlock the Secret Generative Music System Hidden in Spotify

If you’re not familiar, generative music is a term popularized by Brian Eno to describe music which changes continuously without ever stopping or repeating itself. I’ve written an introduction to generative music which is a thorough examination of what I believe qualifies music as “generative” based on Eno’s own writings on the topic.

Over the last year I’ve been creating my own generative music systems, both as a creative exercise and so I could have distraction-free music to listen to while I work. As a professional web developer, I found it was quite easy for me to program generative music systems which played in the browser, thanks to new technologies like the Web Audio API and JavaScript libraries like Tone.js. I even built a platform for browser-based generative music called Generative.fm (so far all the music is ambient, so check it out if you’re into that sorta thing).

Generative music systems accessible in the browser mark a significant breakthrough in the convenience of listening to generative music, but it’s still necessary to use a different platform than traditional music players to listen. Apps like Spotify are intended for recorded music; they only play individual sound files, one at a time. Generative music is of potentially infinite length, and each play of a generative music system is different than…