Shruti Haasan on Why Algorithm is 'Killing' Storytelling in Music: 'People Don’t Have Bandwidth to Listen to More Than 30 Seconds'

Actor-singer Shruti Hassan has always believed in storytelling through music. What worries her now is how little space the actual storytelling is being given. “The algorithm is killing storytelling in music,” she says, not because audiences don’t care anymore, but because the system no longer allows them the time to do so.

During THR India's musicians' roundtable, Haasan said her relationship with social media wasn’t always uneasy and recalled how she was drawn to it early.

“When I was studying music in the US, we had MySpace. Before social media was even a term,” she says. To her, it felt personal. You could choose the song on your page, change the look and create a mood. “The minute someone came to your page, they knew what kind of musician you were.”

That sense of discovery still exists, but there is a sense of "limitation". “You still find incredible artists, and that part is amazing," she says, recalling coming across a young musician from Ukraine who suddenly blew up in the funk scene. But it now sits alongside something more limiting. “There’s another arm of the octopus, and it’s strangling the music business,” she admits.

“People don’t have the bandwidth anymore to listen to more than 30 seconds or a minute,” she says. For artists invested in narrative and emotional build, the format itself becomes a problem. “How am I supposed to put a story into that?”

The imbalance is visible even in numbers. “I have reels for ‘Vinveli Nayaga’ or ‘Sanchari’, and I’m extremely grateful for that. But an English song I’ve written, where I’ve poured my entire soul and organs into it, doesn’t even get 30,000 hits. That’s where you see the discrepancy of the algorithm,” she says.

At this point, she feels, artists are less in control than they like to believe. “More than social media, we’re at the mercy of the algorithms,” she says.

When it comes to performing, Haasan has a fun little ritual. “Potatoes and prayer. I need potatoes before I sing,” she says. She laughs, amused by how unglamorous it sounds, and sums it up quickly. “The three Ps — potatoes, prayer and practice.”