RA Exchange

Welcome to Resident Advisor.

I'm Chloe Lula, the Exchange, the Exchange's Senior Producer. Welcome to Resident Advisors Exchange.

I'm Chloe Lula, the Exchange's senior producer.

As we approach the end of 2025, it's clear that one of the year's most zeitgeist

defining books has been Liz Pelley's Mood Machine, The Rise of Spotify and the costs of the perfect playlist.

The New York-based writer has been on a promotional tour, speaking at festivals around the world,

and one of her recent stops was at Soft Center in Australia, where this exchange was recorded live with writer, editor, and DJ Audrey Feister.

Pellie's background is in the DIY scene,

college radio, and independent alt-weeklies, all of which ignited her interest in writing

about music. Over the last two years, she's become an outspoken advocate for underground

music and an incisive critic of how the streaming economy has debilitated independent

artistry. In this conversation,

she impacts some of her book's main conceits. For example, Spotify was originally designed around

advertising models, rather than music first models, she says, which is why it rewards music that

performs well at scale. She explains how that's created so much growing inequity in the music that performs well on

the platform, and she goes on to draw some fascinating parallels between what's happening

in the streaming economy and what's happening now in digital media.

If this sounds gloomy, all is not lost.

Mood Machine ends on a somewhat hopeful note, and Peli proposes some solutions.

As custodians of the independent music scene, we have a responsibility to go to live shows,

subscribe to emerging DIY media projects, and give money directly to artists by buying their music and their merch.

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