Book To Investigate Spotify’s ‘Ghost Artists’ On Playlists

American writer and editor Liz Pelly is releasing her first book in 2025. A book that delves into “ghost” artists to fill up playlists for passive listeners on Spotify, Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist, will be released via Astra House on Tuesday, 7 January.

In the lead-up to the book’s release, a punchy excerpt was published in Harper’s Magazine today. The excerpt highlights a practice called the Perfect Fit Content (PFC) program, which allegedly seeks to remove “real classical, jazz, and ambient artists from popular play­lists and [replace] them with low-­budget stock muzak.”

Pelly has collected internal documentation from Spotify staff and spoken to artists who contributed to the PFC program.

She writes: “According to a source close to the company, Spotify's own internal research showed that many users were not coming to the platform to listen to specific artists or albums; they just needed something to serve as a soundtrack for their days, like a study playlist or maybe a dinner soundtrack.

“In the lean-back listening environment that streaming had helped champion, listeners often weren't even aware of what song or artist they were hearing. As a result, the thinking seemed to be: Why pay full-price royalties if users were only half listening? It was likely from this reasoning that the Perfect Fit Content program was created.”

Pelly’s investigation brought her to playlists you likely see all the time when scrolling through options on Spotify. “By 2023, several hundred playlists were being monitored by the team responsible for PFC,” the excerpt reads. “Over 150 of these, including ‘Ambient Relaxation,’ ‘Deep Focus,’ ‘100% Lounge,’ ‘Bossa Nova Dinner,’ ‘Cocktail Jazz,’ ‘Deep Sleep,’ ‘Morning Stretch,’ and ‘Detox,’ were nearly entirely made up of PFC.”

Sharing the Mood Machine excerpt on social media, Simon Raymonde—bassist of Cocteau Twins and founder of the label Bella Union—wrote: “And we wonder why artists can’t make money…”

And we wonder why artists can’t make money…. https://t.co/2n5eO9DyOy

— Simon Raymonde (@mrsimonraymonde) December 20, 2024

You can pre-order the book here.

Earlier this month, The Music dug into the Spotify Wrapped data and revealed the artists who dominated 2024.

In 2024, The Kid LAROI was the most “newly discovered Australian artist” by global audiences. The USA was named the country where Australian artists were streamed the most from outside Australia, followed by the UK, Germany, Canada, and Mexico.

The Kid LAROI was the most streamed Australian artist in the Asia—Pacific region (APAC), followed by Troye Sivan and Chase Atlantic. Like last year, The Wiggles were Australia’s most streamed local artists of the year, followed by The Kid LAROI, AC/DC, Vance Joy, and RÜFÜS DU SOL.