Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist

Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist by Liz Pelly

Spotify was started as a marketing company. Music was seen as a good target. It had sought to focus on the long tail. However, it gradually morphed to supporting "big music" instead. Spotify has private contracts with big music labels that weigh things in their favors. There are also schemes to allow artists to promote their own works in a form of "pay for play".  The artist payout mechanisms have lead to favoring of "background music". Songs with minimal streams have been demonetized.

The book starts by analyzing Spotify, but then pivots to search for a way to improve the life of musicians. Streaming is a primary way that people engage with music today. However, it is very difficult for musicians to make money. Many musicians need to maintain other jobs to support themselves. There are also concerns about "work for hire" vs. "artistic endeavors". I wonder if there is just a lot of recency bias in looking at the life of musicians. How would musicians survive 100 years ago? Mass success has only been something fairly recent. Local musicians doing local music may be the way to support oneselves long term.