Advocacy group Music Equality has today shared their findings from new research from the European Commission showing that Spotify is systematically devaluing the music exports of 11 countries in southeast Europe (SEE) by shutting them out from algorithmic discovery.

The EC report, published in March, found that even when fed with local music recommendations, the algorithm consistently fails to amplify local cultures, all but ignoring centuries of history and important contributions to music such as Bulgarian jazz and Serbian folk, which UNESCO recognizes on its intangible heritage register.

"The system does not amplify local culture. It dilutes it. Every time. For every country," say Music Equality, pointing out that the problem is especially acute for smaller markets that share languages with larger ones, as in the Balkans.

Spotify does not currently have any editors focused on music from the region, which includes Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, and Slovenia, and the result is almost no visibility on the platform's most valuable playlists for a population of over 55 million people.

A list of five demands has been drawn up to level the playing field for all:

"Spotify did not set out to erase us. But erasure does not require intent. It requires power, opacity, and the absence of accountability. Spotify has all three," says Music Equality, adding:

"It controls how 60% of European music listeners discover new artists. It does so through an algorithm the EU Commission has now proven works against smaller markets. It faces no legal obligation to change this. And it operates across our entire region without a single person whose job is to understand our music.

That is discrimination by outcome. And outcome is what matters.

The Balkans survived empires. We are not going to be quietly deleted by a Swedish streaming platform's recommendation engine. But survival requires action — from policymakers, from regulators, from the European institutions that signed the UNESCO Convention on Cultural Diversity and whose own Commission has now documented exactly how that convention is being violated in practice."

You can find a lot more information about how Spotify is erasing the Balkans and sign a petition for change here.