Mood Machine

 

Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist by Liz Pelly, 236 pgs. 

In today's age of technology, much of the world's music is available to stream anytime--with just a subscription and a click. Is this system actually working for music discovery though? Is it fair to musicians? Is it ethical? Liz Pelly, music journalist and commentator, tackles these questions and more in this deep dive into Spotify, the Swedish streaming giant. Pelly uses interview accounts from artists, music industry bigwigs, and Spotify employees alike to chronicle the changes the platform has made to music industry practices in the face of a constantly transforming system. 

This book is very dense, each page jam-packed with good information--often from interviewed sources. As a Spotify user since 2015, I was really surprised to see how well my own experiences with the platform fit into the narrative Pelly laid out. I got to see the story behind why different songs and different playlists have popped up in my recommendations over the years. This book very persuasively explains why Spotify is set up the way it is and why its algorithm works the way that it does.