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WBUR Podcasts, Boston.

This is On Point. I'm Anthony Brooks. When Spotify launched in 2008, it promised a brave new

world of nearly universal access to music for just a few dollars a month, and a robust business

model for the big recording companies. It also promised musicians a fair cut of the

action. So how's all that worked out? Well, Spotify has delivered huge profits, billions of dollars,

to an increasingly consolidated recording industry, including hundreds of millions of dollars to its

CEO, Daniel Eck, of Sweden.

But hardworking independent musicians have ended up with just fractions of pennies per download.

Not cool, says music critic and author Liz Pelly, who says Spotify has also dumbed down the way millions of us listen to music.

Computer-generated algorithmic playlists

deliver round-the-clock background music, what Pelley calls Neo-Musac. Frictionless, easy listening,

that's killing our ability to explore and develop individual musical tastes.

It's what happens, she says, when we place too much faith in over-eager tech

entrepreneurs who claim their new apps will fix everything. This hour on point, Liz Pelly,

and her book, Mood Machine, The Rise of Spotify, and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist.

And Liz Pelley joins us now from New York.

Welcome, Liz.

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