For years, the public has called them "fake artists." But internally at Spotify, the program has name: Perfect Fit Content. My investigation, and the first look into my book Mood Machine, is the January cover at @harpers.bsky.social harpers.org/archive/2025... - ThreadSky

lizpelly.bsky.social • 72 days ago

For years, the public has called them "fake artists." But internally at Spotify, the program has name: Perfect Fit Content. My investigation, and the first look into my book Mood Machine, is the January cover at @harpers.bsky.social
https://harpers.org/archive/2025/01/the-ghosts-in-the-machine-liz-pelly-spotify-musicians/

Comments

chrisforsythe.bsky.social•68 days ago

It seems that much of the music on Spotify playlists is not very good. I'm constantly in search of new music by artists I do not know, and on a good day, about one in ten songs are worth the time to listen to them.

microfilm.bsky.social•72 days ago

Thank you Liz.

reilow.bsky.social•71 days ago

@peretsky.bsky.social u seen this? ambient industrial complex

peretsky.bsky.social•71 days ago

Of course dawg I’m co-hosting the book launch next month!

lucabmr.bsky.social•63 days ago

Thank you so much for sharing this! I believe anyone who has always had a critical approach to Spotify won’t be surprised by the insights in your article

gonorth.bsky.social•71 days ago

great article. this paragraph does a great job at explaining just what I think is wrong with our conception of music these days

landscapes.bsky.social•70 days ago

Thanks for the reporting. Can’t wait to read the book.

bimorticianfan6666.bsky.social•72 days ago

From the bottom of my heart, fuck spotify with 200 cactuses. The conversation with the Jazz musician freaked me out so much, terrifying read but really necessary, thank you🖤

wallycox.bsky.social•71 days ago

Thank you! Have to think Apple also has a “perfect fit content” program too…

krldslv.bsky.social•72 days ago

great piece Liz!

o-rlly.bsky.social•71 days ago

All grimly depressing. Thank you for your tenacity and patience in uncovering and highlighting just what is going on.

kimoco.bsky.social•71 days ago

damn

tildesounds.bsky.social•72 days ago

📌

darkpaladin109.bsky.social•70 days ago

Classic capitalism - make a good product/service, get people hooked on it, then start cutting as many corners as you can to increase profits.

disappearingdreams.bsky.social•50 days ago

enshittification… the now-dominant end-stage capitalism business plan.

doomsticksmusic.bsky.social•71 days ago

Fantastic piece, thank you

volid.bsky.social•72 days ago

Great article. Thank you! I've been following this and pretty much anything related to the streaming business model for a while. I rarely stumble across anything that gives me hope. Please give me hope. What are you looking at that stands a reasonable chance of turning this around?

lizpelly.bsky.social•72 days ago

thanks! the last section of my book covers just this. musician-organizers advancing a bill to fix royalties
@umaw.bsky.social, advocates calling for real policy interventions the FTC/FCC could take, public library streaming alternatives, artists building alternatives from the ground-up etc

volid.bsky.social•72 days ago

Thanks for the response! Ground-up alternatives: I'd love to hear what you think is a promising model. I don't see one and I've spent many, many hours looking at them all. They all seem destined to create silos.

volid.bsky.social•70 days ago

Seriously, I am going to read your book. I live in Argentina, I've got my daughter bringing it back for Christmas. But is there anything you see, doesn't have to be a specific brand, could be an idea, organization or tech: anything that you think 'yes! this could make a difference.'? Sorry.

volid.bsky.social•70 days ago

I've just spent so many hours (100s) looking into this, any response would be appreciated.

lizpelly.bsky.social•70 days ago

part of my perspective is that one of the major problems with streaming is the idea that a "one-size-fits-all" solution could work for all sorts of listeners/artists, and that rejecting that very idea is an important part of imagining alternatives

volid.bsky.social•72 days ago

Policy intervention: what is the path to this? I've watched many talks with industry pros on the independent/grass-roots end and there are bottlenecks in data communication to create a convincing case that i think can be solved but aren't. And I'm not convinced results would follow if they were.

volid.bsky.social•72 days ago

I will take a closer look at Umaw's progress. Industry fragmentation below the 'behemoth' line seemed like a big hurdle, and last time i looked they were not solving this. Maybe they now have the tools. And I will definitely buy your book. Thank you again, this is important work! You rock.

marramark.bsky.social•72 days ago

Does Apple Music have this problem too?

lizpelly.bsky.social•72 days ago

several signs point to yes

marramark.bsky.social•71 days ago

we really have no great choices

sirfache.bsky.social•71 days ago

From what I can tell, Tidal doesn’t do this. I haven’t scoured every single playlist but I more or less can always tell that it’s real artists on the ones that they have highlighted. They also pay more than Spotify. Bandcamp is still the best for independent artists though.

marramark.bsky.social•71 days ago

Tidal is the clunkiest out of the three and the one with the least social footprint. We really have such sh*tty choices in choosing an app where we can stream, discover legit artists, broadcast our obsessions on social media *and* make sure artists are getting paid fairly. We need a disruptor.

sirfache.bsky.social•71 days ago

Yeah I don’t use Tidal for playlists but my discover algorithm has gotten pretty solid since I joined a few years back and the audio quality is night and day. I do wish they embraced more of the social aspect though but it’s worth the sacrifice for me

sofia.nucleo.jor.br•72 days ago

@rodolfoalmd.nucleo.jor.br

rodolfoalmd.nucleo.jor.br•72 days ago

to doido pra ler esse livro

rcarterhall.bsky.social•70 days ago

📌

mayacomposer.bsky.social•71 days ago

what the actual fuck

matunos.bsky.social•70 days ago

the enshitification of music

jenray.bsky.social•61 days ago

This is such a crazy and interesting thing going on and such a well-written dive into it. Thanks for this! Going to look for your book now.

sirfache.bsky.social•72 days ago

It’s absolutely cartoonishly evil that they are actively trying to have actual artists make even less money off Spotify streams then they already were making

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