EU Study on the discoverability of diverse European cultural content in the digital environment
A long-awaited study prepared for the European Commission entitled ‘Study on the discoverability of diverse European cultural content in the digital environment’ has been released. The report explores how European cultural works, with a primary focus on the music and book sectors, are accessed and discovered online amidst the rise of global digital platforms. It explores the impact of algorithmic curation, recommendation systems, and the attention economy on Europe’s cultural and linguistic diversity, identifying emerging challenges and proposing areas for policy action.
The study’s methodology combines desk research, sectoral data mapping, and extensive stakeholder consultation, including interviews, focus groups, and a workshop. It also draws upon a Europe-wide consumer survey of over 400 participants and analysis of consumption curation practices and algorithmic recommendations to inform its findings.
Some of the main findings of the publication include:
- The Discoverability Gap: While digitalisation has drastically expanded the availability of cultural content, true discovery is constrained by platform algorithms that often reinforce mainstream trends, creating language silos and reducing exposure to diverse European works.
- Music Sector Dynamics: Streaming platforms dominate music discovery, but an overwhelming volume of content and popularity-biased algorithms make it difficult for diverse, non-English European artists to gain visibility without targeted editorial support.
- Book Sector Trends: Although traditional offline discovery remains vital, online exploration is increasingly driven by social communities and fragmented digital infrastructure that tend to amplify English-language literature at the expense of local European works.
- Data and Transparency Barriers: Missing or inconsistent metadata across sectors, combined with algorithmic opacity, severely hinders creators and cultural institutions from understanding and improving how their works are recommended to audiences.