'I poured my soul into it...didn’t even get 30,000 hits': Shruti Haasan on algorithm bias

Shruti Haasan has never shied away from speaking her mind, and when it comes to music, her concerns are growing louder. For an artist who believes deeply in storytelling through sound, today’s algorithm-driven music landscape feels increasingly hostile, not because audiences have changed, but because the system has.

“The algorithm is killing storytelling in music,” Haasan says bluntly, during THR India’s musicians’ roundtable. According to her, it’s not a lack of interest from listeners, but a lack of space. “The system no longer allows them the time to do so.”

Haasan recalls a time when social media felt intimate rather than intimidating. While studying music in the US, she was introduced to MySpace — long before social media became a buzzword.

“You could choose the song on your page, change the look, and create a mood,” she said. The minute someone came to your page, they knew what kind of musician you were,” the singer-cum actor added. 

That sense of discovery hasn’t completely vanished, she admits. “You still find incredible artists, and that part is amazing,” she says, recalling stumbling upon a young Ukrainian musician who unexpectedly blew up in the funk scene. But alongside discovery now exists something far more suffocating. There’s another arm of the octopus, and it’s strangling the music business,” she added.

The biggest casualty, Haasan feels, is narrative depth. “People don’t have the bandwidth anymore to listen to more than 30 seconds or a minute,” she explains. For artists invested in emotional build and storytelling, the format itself becomes the enemy. “How am I supposed to put a story into that?”

The impact of algorithms is starkly visible even in numbers. Haasan points to her own work, noting that reels for tracks like ‘Vinveli Nayaga’ and ‘Sanchari’ have performed well — something she says she’s grateful for.

However, the contrast is painful. “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 added.

At this stage, Haasan believes artists have far less control than they’d like to assume. “More than social media, we’re at the mercy of the algorithms,” she says.

When it comes to performing, however, Haasan still keeps things refreshingly grounded. Her pre-show ritual? “Potatoes and prayer. I need potatoes before I sing,” she laughs, summing it up perfectly with what she calls “the three Ps — potatoes, prayer, and practice.”