BOOK REVIEW
Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist, by Liz Pelly, Hodder & Stoughton (2025), 288 pp., ($23.47) Hardcover, ISBN 978-1-399-71884-4.
One night in 2018, a songwriter noticed his track had millions of plays on Spotify but earned him almost nothing. Digging deeper, he found his song buried in a "Chill" playlist between anonymous, algorithmically promoted tracks designed to keep users streaming. This moment captures the heart of Liz Pelly’s Mood Machine. Through incisive reporting and clear analysis, Pelly reveals how Spotify, once celebrated as a savior from piracy, has transformed music into a data-driven commodity, placing corporate profits above artistic integrity. The book is a critical examination of how streaming has altered listening habits, artist livelihoods, and the very meaning of music in the digital age (Leenders et al., 2015).
Liz Pelly brings a unique blend of journalistic rigor and insider perspective to Mood Machine, making her exceptionally qualified to dissect Spotify’s impact. As a longtime music journalist for outlets like The Baffler and The Guardian, she has spent years investigating the streaming economy, with her work on playlist politics and artist compensation laying the groundwork for this book. Her experience isn’t just observational; she’s immersed in the culture, having booked shows at DIY venues and taught at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, where she bridges academia and the realities of the music industry. Pelly’s reporting is both sharp and empathetic, informed by over 100 interviews with artists, executives, and former Spotify employees. Pelly’s deep involvement in indie music scenes, combined with her investigative rigor, gives her a unique vantage point on the streaming economy. Rather than simply critiquing Spotify, she traces its evolution with the insight of someone who has followed its story from the start.
The common theme threading through Mood Machine is the tension between convenience and control; how Spotify’s data-driven model reshapes music into a passive, algorithmic commodity while sidelining artists and narrowing listener choice. Pelly frames this through Spotify’s evolution from a piracy alternative to a corporate behemoth that prioritizes engagement over artistry, mood-based utility over meaningful discovery. Although the book comprises of eighteen standalone chapters that span a wide range of investigative insights into Spotify’s rise and influence, to aid clarity and narrative flow, these chapters can be grouped into six thematic sections, each revealing a different facet of how Spotify has transformed the music industry. The structure mirrors Pelly’s central argument: streaming’s promises of democratization mask a reality where power concentrates in the hands of platforms, not musicians or listeners.
The first section, The Foundations of the Stream (Chapters 1–3), explores the context of Spotify’s emergence in Sweden during the piracy crisis and its early label negotiations. This is followed by The Algorithmic Takeover (Chapters 4–6), which investigates how Spotify’s emphasis on playlists and algorithmic curation gradually replaced traditional modes of music discovery and listening. The third section, The Mood Machine in Action (Chapters 7–9), dives into Spotify’s strategic organization of music around moods and aesthetics, revealing how the platform subtly steers user behavior through sonic atmospheres rather than artist or album. In The Artist’s Predicament (Chapters 10–12), Pelly highlights the stark economic realities faced by artists under Spotify’s model, including low royalty payouts and “pay-to-play” schemes such as Discovery Mode. This transitions into The Rise of Artificial Intelligence and Functional Music (Chapters 13–15), where the focus turns to Spotify’s increasing investment in AI-generated music, the ghost artist phenomenon, and the commodification of ambient and utilitarian soundscapes. Finally, Resistance and Reimagining the Future (Chapters 16–18) examines collective artist actions, cooperatives, and public institutions seeking to reclaim the music ecosystem from corporate control. These thematic sections not only bring coherence to the book’s rich investigative scope but also help trace the arc from historical origin to future possibilities, emphasizing the interconnections between technology, labor, and cultural production. Each section builds on the last, moving from history to critique to hope, creating a cohesive argument about streaming’s costs and possible futures.
Pelly’s book traces Spotify’s journey from its origins in Sweden to its global dominance, showing how it convinced record labels to embrace streaming with promises of reviving a piracy-battered industry. Yet, as she argues, Spotify’s success came not from empowering artists but from reorganizing music around playlists and algorithms. The platform’s shift from albums to mood-based playlists like "Peaceful Piano" or "Deep Focus" turned music into background noise, favoring passive listening over engagement. Drawing on over a hundred interviews with insiders, Pelly exposes how Spotify’s business model rewards "functional music"; generic tracks that blend seamlessly into playlists, while leaving most artists with meager royalties. The book’s strength lies in its detailed critique of how Spotify’s algorithmic control has replaced traditional industry gatekeepers, creating a system where playlist placement dictates success or failure (Pachali & Datta, 2025).
One of Pelly’s key contributions is her dismantling of the myth that streaming democratizes music. While platforms like Spotify claim to level the playing field, she shows how they reinforce existing power imbalances. Major labels and high-profile artists reap the benefits of streaming’s economies of scale, while independent musicians scramble for viral moments or fade into obscurity. Pelly highlights Spotify’s "ghost artists" program, where anonymous composers fill playlists with cheap, algorithm-friendly music, diverting streams and revenue, away from real artists. This practice, she argues, mirrors historical payola scandals, where money influenced airplay, but with algorithms replacing human middlemen. Her reporting challenges the notion that technology inherently fosters fairness, offering a sobering counterpoint to Silicon Valley’s optimistic narratives.
The book also sparks debate about the cultural consequences of streaming. By organizing music around moods rather than artists or albums, Spotify flattens distinctions between genres and erases context. Pelly compares this to “Muzak”, the background music of elevators and shopping malls, suggesting that streaming has reduced music to a utility rather than an art form. She criticizes the "vibesification" of music, where playlists like "Your Favorite Coffeehouse" prioritize sonic wallpaper over artistic intent. This shift, she argues, discourages deep listening and reinforces a homogenized musical landscape. While some might counter that streaming exposes listeners to more diversity than ever, Pelly’s evidence suggests algorithmic curation often narrows tastes rather than expanding them. Pelly’s stance on Spotify’s economic model is particularly controversial. She details how the platform’s pro-rata royalty system funnels most revenue to a tiny fraction of artists, while the majority earn pennies. For example, a track needs over 480,000 monthly streams to match a $15 hourly wage, a near-impossible feat for independents. Critics might argue that streaming’s accessibility outweighs its flaws, but Pelly counters that convenience shouldn’t come at the cost of artist survival. Her analysis of Spotify’s "Discovery Mode," where artists accept lower royalties for algorithmic promotion, raises ethical questions about pay-to-play dynamics disguised as innovation. These arguments challenge readers to reconsider whether streaming’s benefits justify its costs.
Compared to The Spotify Play by Carlsson and Leijonhufvud, which traces Spotify’s business strategy, and How Music Got Free by Stephen Witt, which explores the rise of digital piracy, Mood Machine offers a distinct, artist-centered perspective that critiques power imbalances in the streaming era. Where others celebrate disruption, Pelly interrogates power. Her work builds upon Eriksson et al.’s (2019) technical analysis by introducing a moral perspective, questioning who benefits and who suffers in the streaming economy. This perspective makes Mood Machine essential for understanding music’s digital transformation beyond corporate hype.
For marketing researchers, Mood Machine is a case study in how platforms manipulate user behavior. Spotify’s "programmed streamshare" metric; tracking how much listening it directs; reveals a strategy of maximizing engagement through algorithmic nudges. The book shows how mood-based playlists exploit psychological triggers, turning music into a tool for habit formation. Pelly’s exposure of "ghost artists" and data-driven curation offers lessons in how platforms prioritize profitability over authenticity, a tension relevant to any industry reliant on algorithmic recommendations. Mood Machine is most relevant to three audiences: music creators, product managers, and platform strategists. Artists gain a roadmap to navigate or challenge Spotify’s system. Product managers see how design-choices, like autoplay or mood tags, shape user behavior. Platform strategists confront ethical questions about their role in an unequal industry. Pelly’s book doesn’t just diagnose problems; it urges all sides to imagine a better system. In an era where music feels both omnipresent and undervalued, Mood Machine is a vital call to rethink who streaming truly serves.
Disclosure of interest
The author(s) confirm that there are no financial or non-financial competing interests.
Statement of funding
No funding was received.
References
Carlsson, S., & Leijonhufvud, J. (2021). The Spotify play: How CEO and founder Daniel Ek beat apple, google, and Amazon in the race for audio dominance. Diversion Books.
Eriksson, M., Fleischer, R., Johansson, A., Snickars, P., & Vonderau, P. (2019). Spotify teardown: Inside the black box of streaming music. MIT Press.
Leenders, M. A. A. M., Farrell, M. A., Zwaan, K., & ter Bogt, T. F. M. (2015). How are young music artists configuring their media and sales platforms in the digital age? Journal of Marketing Management, 31(17–18), 1799–1817.
Pachali, M. J., & Datta, H. (2025). What drives demand for playlists on Spotify?. Marketing Science, 44(1), 54-64.
Witt, S. (2015). How music got free: The end of an industry, the turn of the century, and the patient zero of piracy. Random House.