Characterising Confounding Effects in Music Classification Experiments through Interventions

We address the problem of confounding in the design of music classification experiments, that is, the inability to distinguish the effects of multiple potential influencing variables in the measurements. Confounding affects the validity of conclusions at many levels, and so must be properly accounted for. We propose a procedure for characterising effects of confounding in the results of music classification experiments by creating regulated test conditions through interventions in the experimental pipeline, including a novel resampling strategy. We demonstrate this procedure on the GTZAN genre collection, which is known to give rise to confounding effects.