Music streaming platforms reduce rich listening experiences to algorithmic black boxes, overlooking personal narratives that make music meaningful. We present Blooming Beats, an explainable recommender system that transforms Spotify listening data into visual narratives using Data Humanism principles. The system embodies TRACE principles: Transparency through visual explanations, Context-awareness by integrating personal context, and Empathy by matching listening stories rather than user profiles. A user study with 8 participants exploring a decade of listening data shows that narrative-driven visualization suggests potential for enhancing transparency and engagement.
Al-Hazwani et al. (Wed,) studied this question.