An incredibly detailed and critical evaluation of Spotify's founding, history, and present. With the circulation of the article of Spotify's AI musicians, this should be required follow up reading for anyone wanting to understand Spotify's inner workings and the why of how we got to where we did today with music streaming. 

Starting with Spotify's founding as both a Pirate Bay alternative and with the intent of an advertising company, rather than a music company, we learn how Spotify has morphed music consumption from grassroots discovery to editor-curated playlists to mood-based playlists to algorithmic playlists so personalized users end up in their own musical silos. Liz Pelly also goes in depth on how this has impacted musicians in terms of what they need to do to be noticed on the platform and how even playing the streaming game is antithetical to being an artist. 

One of the most striking quotes in the book is an employee recollecting Daniel Ek, the CEO of Spotify, said "Apple Music, Amazon, these aren't our competitors. Our only competitor is silence." Even more frightening are the details around the rampant surveillance capitalism where every single click on the app is tracked in some way to then be monetized back to artists and labels. 

This book has really changed the way I think about Spotify and I recommend it to anyone wanting to understand the complexities behind streaming culture and also some of the rays of light around how folks are working to make music consumption better for the musicians. I will note that the book can feel quite slow, and is, understandably, pretty gloomy - but the research within is incredible and worth reading. 

Thank you very much to Atria Books and to NetGalley for the advanced copy.