Rockbot and Musical Freedom    

For all the interesting things happening at our campus’ cafeteria, one of the most distinct points of contention in the past year has been, of all things, music. 

Since the summer of 2023, the cafeteria has employed the music queuing app Rockbot, where students can select and vote on songs to be played throughout the day. 

Though many students ignore or even enjoy the music played, a growing number of people have expressed total dissatisfaction with the selection, using terms like “lame” or “irritating” to describe their listening experience. 

A major part of the situation comes from the limitations that come with Rockbot. While the app does provide a selection of tracks to pick from, there are strict guidelines for what gets approved for listening. 

Each day, students are limited to select music by genre, wherein Rockbot only plays one genre of music per day. 

The outcome can be upsetting for people who want to listen to hip hop on rock-centric days and vice versa. 

Human review of each song also plays into a smaller selection; the staff that operates the app will check music for any explicit references or swearing and either deny access to the song or heavily censor them. 

For newer music, it can be hard to hear something you like, as the review process usually takes weeks with all the tracks in the buffer and may not be in the app’s general database. 

What is left for students to hear is usually not the most unique or interesting choices; commonly, songs are ultra-popular hits that play on any other radio station. 

In retaliation to this, some students began over-requesting already approved songs like “Freebird” by Lynyrd Skynyrd, being submitted so many times that staff had to ban every version of the track after numerous complaints. 

The Nautilus recently began interviewing students across campus for their perspective on Rockbot. 

Surprisingly, many stated that they did not pay attention either because they do not care or because they rarely eat in the cafeteria, citing factors like dissatisfaction with the food as causes for decreased attendance. 

When interviewing cafeteria staff members, they claimed that it was barely noticeable if there were more songs like “Freebird” being overplayed. 

According to staff, the selection of music students can play has broadened recently, meaning less repetition in the playlist. 

As for those who frequented the cafeteria, folks either said they did not mind the music, tuning it out or having headphones on when they ate.

Others shared many of the aforementioned complaints with the app. 

Of course, there are also those with more niche taste in music. Some claim they could not find the songs they desired during the song selection process. 

When asked about ways to revise the listening experience, students had a plethora of options, from letting peers review music requests instead of staff to getting rid of Rockbot altogether and just playing the radio.