when The Perfect Playlist killed the Music…
In her new book, Mood Machine, Liz Pelly explores the state of music in the age of the attention economy, where art is reduced to streambait pop, and the promise of music discovery remains an illusion.
"Don't be fooled by the internet. It's cool to get on the computer, but don't let the computer get on you. It's cool to use the computer, but don't let the computer use you. Y'all saw The Matrix. There is a war going on. The battlefield is the mind, and the prize is the soul. So, be careful. Be very careful," Prince warned on stage at the Yahoo Internet Life Online Music Awards.
It was 1999, a time before the rise of the attention economy, when music still existed beyond perfect playlists—before it was reduced to a tool for data collection and profit maximization. This transformation is central to Liz Pelly’s book Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist, set to be released on January 7. It’s not just the story of Spotify but also of how new players and platforms pushed traditional structures to the breaking point, at the expense of the artists and workers who form the backbone of the industry. It tells of a desperate music industry, the wild west of the streaming economy, and the companies that took the stage with dreams of democratizing music and fostering collective creation. Slogans that, in Pelly’s words, now seem hollow at best and outright deceitful at worst—a propaganda project that Spotify played a part in.
Streambait Pop
““The platform era capitalized on people’s impulses to want to participate in their own lives, to share their writing and photos and favorite songs, in pursuit of the human need for connection. Being able to participate does not mean that whatyou’re participating in is fair, though. And platforms mostly only offered the illusion of togetherness. They are not public squares; they’re corporate digital enclosures where your every move is tracked.” ”
With a refreshingly critical perspective, free from bothsidesism and internet nostalgia, Pelly highlights how disruption in the music industry has exacerbated inequality and exploitation rather than delivering a fair transformation. Music was turned into “streambait”—content created solely to capture users’ attention and maximize data generation. These algorithmically optimized tracks, often characterized by simple, repetitive melodies with minimal variation, were designed to blend seamlessly into playlists. Instead of encouraging active music discovery or artistic engagement, the streambait culture reduced music to a consumption tool that serves the platform’s commercial goals. This shift diverted value away from the artists, whose work became subsumed under the logic of algorithms, and placed it in the hands of Spotify, which not only distributes music but also controls how it is experienced.
Through more than a hundred interviews with industry professionals, former Spotify employees, and musicians, Pelly examines the inner workings and behind-the-scenes operations of streaming services, cutting through the promotional rhetoric of an otherwise opaque industry. This includes topics like the use of cheap stock music on popular playlists, bots, and the rise of new payola-like practices. Spotify’s focus on automated listening experiences—such as AI DJs and tailored playlists—has created an illusion of music discovery, where listeners believe they are making choices, while in reality, the platform orchestrates the entire experience. A new form of gatekeeping, where profit-driven algorithms and major record labels dominate playlists, gradually marginalizing artistry.
At the core of this transformation is the role of AI and data analytics, which drive both the creation and consumption of music, leading to a hyper-commercialized industry dominated by streambait pop and ghost artists. These musicians produce tracks released without clear attribution or are created explicitly to populate playlists on streaming platforms like Spotify. Ghost artists may be anonymous or fictitious, and their music is tailored to fit specific moods or genres popular on the platform’s algorithmically curated playlists, such as 'Chill,' 'Focus,' or 'Sleep.' In some cases, these ghost artists are backed by the music industry or the streaming platforms themselves. The music might also be produced by studios or AI tools.
The Age of Pirates
Mood Machine also recounts the era of piracy, when services like Napster and The Pirate Bay revolutionized music consumption and disrupted the traditional structures of the industry. These platforms made music freely available to millions of users, forcing record labels to adapt to a new digital reality. It was a time of chaos and innovation that, in many ways, laid the groundwork for the streaming era we know today.
The story of social media’s rise has been told many times—when the industry emerged, the mantra “Move fast and break things” symbolized an innovation imperative that prioritized rapid changes over consideration of their consequences. The streaming industry followed a similar trajectory, repeating many of the same mistakes by prioritizing growth and profit over artistic integrity and fairness.
With Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist, Liz Pelly delivers a sharp analysis of an era that—like social media platforms—has transformed how we create and consume culture, with significant social and cultural costs as a result.
Liz Pelly (2025) Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist
Publisher: Simon & Schuster