Mood Machine by Liz Pelly offers an insightful behind-the-scenes look at the modern music industry. Drawing on numerous interviews, Pelly explores the complexities of streaming, shedding light on both the challenges and opportunities it creates. The book is easy to read and digest, providing a clear and engaging perspective on how today’s music landscape has been shaped. It’s a thought-provoking read for anyone curious about the evolution of music in the digital age.

"Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist" by Liz Pelly was full on information, insight, sequence of events and knowledge of the music industry and music streaming. Definitely interesting look at what goes on behind the buttons that we push and the music we enjoy. Thank you NetGalley, the author and publisher for the review copy. All opinions are my own.

4.5/5
I've had a Premium Spotify account since 2017 (all hail the student account prices of the 2010s) and I've also been an advocate for Spotify after iTunes/Apple Music forced that U2 album on all of us that we still can't get rid of. However, Mood Machine unveils that not all is all sunshine and skittles behind the rise of Spotify.

Make no mistake, this is a dense book of journalism. So much so that I decided to pick up the audiobook on Libby instead of continuing on in my ARC from the publisher. The author delves into the rise of Spotify in Sweden and its sweep over Europe before it jumped the pond into the US market.

Spotify is not the perfect streamer company that many make it out to be. Musicians barely make money off of the platform and now Spotify is adding in AI music into playlists so that real musicians make even less money.

The new Spotify game seems to be using AI to undermine the consumer and the artists without any of us realizing it until now.

This was a really interesting read on the history of Spotify and algorithmic music, giving the context on historical and legal background to make sense of today's questions and challenges!

Pelly wrote this book brilliantly. I enjoyed the layout as well as all the information that was presented. It didnt feel like too much and I learned alot. Specifically in the beginning of the book for how spotify came to be and just how much it strayed from the original purpose. This book adds to the bigger conversation on spotify and the ideal playlist for its users. Gave me alot to think about.

This was an interesting look into Spotify. It kind of felt like an information dump somtimes but a good read for music lovers and anyone who likes streaming music.

This was so interesting and so much that I didn't know. Really easy to read and digest and I loved how the chapters flowed. I listened to the audio for part of it and it kind of felt like a podcast, for better and for worse.

What a tough read. I thought I knew how bad Spotify was at devaluing music and underpaying artists, but Mood Machine showed it runs deeper than I imagined. I don't know how this situation will get better, but I hope it does.

An interesting look into the history of Spotify and how it started and how/why it’s evolved into what it is now. It’s a lot of information I already knew but there were some interesting tidbits in here I didn’t know.

This also dives into the future of music/streaming and the organizations, structures and policies other countries have found successful or that people have started but haven’t caught wind yet that could be a possible way forward for artists to make living wages and continue making the art we so desperately need in the world.

Some of the information felt redundant and I wished there was more of a narrative string carrying the book along, but altogether enjoyed learning more about Spotify and streaming!

Mood Machine is the story behind the rise of Spotify and criticism of its relationship with the artists within the platform. There was a lot of information and history about the developers of Spotify, how their playlists came to be, and the music they chose to populate the playlists.

This book was too info heavy for me alongside a lot of technicalities behind developing an app. If you are into app development, technology, building a company, you might have more interest in what this book has to offer. This was a little dry and shy on the drama that I had anticipated.

Thank you to Atria for the review copy.

A fun fact about me: I don’t stream music. I don’t use any music streaming service - mostly I buy albums through iTunes. This is a holdover from when data plans in Canada were exorbitant, and I worked in a place that had no wifi for personal devices. And I just…kept doing this. Only recently did I bother to off load some music files to the cloud. I liked having everything with me.

So why was I interested in a critical look at Spotify? Spotify is one of those things I had a leery feeling about and wasn’t sure why. Pelly’s extensive research and interviews with those in the music industry and former employees peels back the fun layer of Spotify to explore the ways that it has damaged the music industry, and how it works as a prime piece of surveillance capitalism. This was fascinating, even though I don’t use streaming, and gave voice to some of my concerns. Pelly also offers examples of ways pushback is and can happen, such as local music collections in libraries. We love to see it. Ultimately, Spotify is an example of the collapse of our society and the grasping by tech oligarchs.

Liz Pelly has gone into such detail to fully discuss and expose the hidden agendas of one of the biggest music streaming companies in the world. As a Spotify user and a lover of music myself, I was so intrigued by all the information she presented and I am definitely more conscious about how I stream my music and contribute to a system that has for years allegedly brought detriment to the livelihoods of so many artistes and musicians.

Over the years, I've read a lot of reporting on Spotify business practices so not much in this book is new to me. Still, it's a well-researched book going into the history of the company, its pivot into playlists and personalized user experience, along with its impact on the average person's listening habits as well as the music industry. The book is often repetitive, especially in regards to the chapters on playlists: Pelly has a tendency of regurgitating things she has previously mentioned without adding new research or insight. There are some chapters that honestly could've been cut. Another complaint is that the section on artist advocacy and Spotify alternatives feel half-baked and could've been more thought out.

This book just wasn't for me. I don't even like Spotify so don't know why the publishing company sent me a link to download this book since I didn't request it. If you enjoy Spotify, then you will enjoy reading this. It added nothing of value and the writing was poor and uninteresting.

great book and I loved the action and the romance . I loved seeing the friends and family. I loved that they were able to figure things out. Overall a great book .

Thank you to Atria / One Signal Publishers for the finished copy to review.

I wanted to read this one given I had heard a little about the drama between artists, streaming, and Spotify but did not know all of the details about what was behind it, and certainly did not know half of what was in here and am glad I do now. This was an interesting and horrifying read, very thorough and detailed in explaining the origin, rise, and current state of Spotify and how it has changed everything. (The AI musicians…) I did the audio for this book and recommend it if you can read it this way.

Mood Machine is a fascinating and well researched look at Spotify and the music streaming landscape as a whole: for better and worse. Liz Pelly delivers a great book reminiscent of Easy Riders, Raging Bulls but for the music industry.

This book was so, so informative and is so, so important. It absolutely blew the lid off all the shady stuff Spotify does to keep you listening and pay artists close to nothing. Ever wonder why “Espresso” auto-played after every playlist you ever had in summer 2024? Pelly addresses it. Ever wonder why Spotify makes up weird names for genres they put in your Wrapped or Daylist? It’s actually strategy to manipulate musicians into making Spotify more money.

While this didn’t put me off using Spotify entirely, I don’t think it was meant to. Instead, it’s made me a more careful consumer of this ubiquitous service. For instance, using music discovery tools outside of Spotify or the other streaming platforms. And also not using the AI DJ or other enhanced recommendation tools in Spotify.

I believe this book is incredibly important to read for the average Spotify listener, or those who care about what we can do to support artists in the music industry. This is the ultimate book to answer your questions.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

as a psychology researcher (who isn't in tech), i just wanted more about how fields such as neuroscience and the study of emotions are influencing big tech as well as how social factors like generational wealth or race play into the success (or lack there of) of musicians. mood machine is very well researched i will say, but as someone who has kept up with the practices of spotify for years due to my own curiosity (mainly because ai scares me a little) as well as when i was a teenager and found out about spotify's shady practices towards artists through that taylor swift wsj op ed, it took me a long time to get through because i just wasn't that interested as the commentary took a backseat to the facts (which is good though). i just wish the policy piece that was tacked onto the end was fleshed out a bit more but talking about ubi in depth in what it means to artists might be a bit too radical for a spotify non-fiction.

First of all, Mood Machine was incredibly well researched. While not an artist myself, I have been following the way Spotify mistreats their artists for years through smaller artists I support. This book provides excellent insights into how that happens, and how the company was built on the foundations of doing so. Additionally, as someone who got my Spotify Wrapped back with "pink metropolitan pilates princess strut" (or something to that effect) and thought "WTF does that even mean?", it was nice to have some of the elements the consumers are confused about as well. Great nonfiction read for those with an interest in arts/pop culture!