King Gizzard, Spotify, and the Future of Music

Galaxy Brain

The Atlantic

Technology

4.5 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 13 February 2026

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On this week’s Galaxy Brain, host Charlie Warzel dives into the state of the music industry, where streaming economics, algorithmic discovery, and generative AI are reshaping how music is distributed as well as what it means to make music in this environment. The episode traces how playlists and opaque recommendation systems have left many artists feeling like they’re battling an algorithm. With AI-generated songs now flooding platforms, and even in one case landing on a Billboard chart, the episode examines how automation, impersonation, and synthetic “diet music” are crowding into a system already strained by low payouts and creative burnout. Charlie is joined by Stu Mackenzie, the front man of the prolific Australian band King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, to talk about making music in the algorithmic age. From embracing bootleggers to pulling its catalog from Spotify, Mackenzie explains how the band has tried to protect its creative core while the industry transforms around it. Charlie and Stu explore whether we’re witnessing a normal technological shift or something more existential—an era where music is treated as pure commodity. Get more from your favorite Atlantic voices when you subscribe. You’ll enjoy unlimited access to Pulitzer-winning journalism, from clear-eyed analysis and insight on breaking news to fascinating explorations of our world. Atlantic subscribers also get access to exclusive subscriber audio in Apple Podcasts. Subscribe today at TheAtlantic.com/Listener. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:56.3	Terms and conditions apply.
0:58.2	This ship has like well and truly sailed.
1:00.9	It is totally whack to be able to train the algorithm on artists' work.
1:06.1	Totally whack.
1:07.1	Like totally cooked.
1:12.3	I'm Charlie Wurzel, a staff writer at The Atlantic, and this is Galaxy Brain, a show where today we're going to talk about music.
1:19.5	Making it, the future of it, and the ways the technology has complicated that future quite a bit.
1:25.1	Throughout the last decade, I've been fortunate enough to meet and interview
1:28.1	a bunch of musicians across a bunch of genres and levels of fame. And inevitably, the conversation
1:33.8	always shifts towards streaming. Now, you're probably familiar with the basic gripes. Streaming has atomized
1:39.8	a musician's catalog, prioritizing tracks over albums. The economics stink for the artists.
1:46.0	Musicians have to get big, like really almost Taylor Swift big, to make money from the streamers.
1:52.1	And in order to get big, musicians now need to play the platform game, the same one that creators
1:56.9	and average Joe's posting anywhere online have to play. Getting put on Spotify or another streamers curated playlist is crucial,
	...

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