The music and cultural critic Liz Pelly’s new book Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Cost of the Perfect Playlist is a deep dive into Spotify’s often contentious position in music today.
Liz has been a philosophising on issues brought about by the streaming era’s cultural impact for about 10 years now so the book collates a lot of work, thoughts, research and investigative reporting on Spotify and the way it operates.
We talk to Liz about the Swedish streaming giant’s outsized influence on the music industry, its gatekeeper effect on trends in music, and how Spotify has emphasised mood and passive listening above discovery and initiative.
We talk about the vast collection of user behaviour on the platform that has lead to artists chasing a more homogenous “streambait pop” sound, how Spotify uses fake “ghost” artists and their Perfect Fit Content system to reduce royalty rates and squeeze out real artists on the platform’s popular algorithmic and editorial playlists.
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Liz was last on the Podcast in 2022: Is it time to quit Spotify?
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005. He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Cara Magazine, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, co-founder of Lumo Club, event curator, Indie Sleaze club promoter, and producer of gigs and monthly listening parties & events in Dublin.
