This book is a goldmine for anyone in the music industry, especially aspiring music journalists like me. Pelly masterfully breaks down the financial and statistical complexities of the industry, making them accessible even for readers without a background in money or law.

The standout feature is her dedication to interviewing a diverse range of professionals in music, offering rich, firsthand insights. The book is densely packed with valuable information, making it an essential resource for industry newcomers and veterans alike.

However, the ending felt a bit choppy and repetitive. Trimming down some of the overlapping topics could have improved the overall flow. Despite this minor flaw, the book remains an exceptional guide for understanding the inner workings of the music world.

3.5

A very well researched book, Mood Machine is a look at the inception and rise of Spotify, the methods behind its madness and the continuing conversation around royalty payments. I found the chapters around the insidious practice of “ghost artists” and AI generated content incredibly eye opening and interesting- it’s something I didn’t know about and found myself opening the app to look up some of these playlists.

I found some new playlists, but it also caused me to think a bit more critically about what I’m consuming and using everyday.

I found it a little long, and I think it would appeal to any musicians or those who are in the music industry or music industry “adjacent”. I would have enjoyed more on audio I think, but I can’t see Spotify adding it to their catalogue ;)

An incredibly detailed and critical evaluation of Spotify's founding, history, and present. With the circulation of the article of Spotify's AI musicians, this should be required follow up reading for anyone wanting to understand Spotify's inner workings and the why of how we got to where we did today with music streaming.

Starting with Spotify's founding as both a Pirate Bay alternative and with the intent of an advertising company, rather than a music company, we learn how Spotify has morphed music consumption from grassroots discovery to editor-curated playlists to mood-based playlists to algorithmic playlists so personalized users end up in their own musical silos. Liz Pelly also goes in depth on how this has impacted musicians in terms of what they need to do to be noticed on the platform and how even playing the streaming game is antithetical to being an artist.

One of the most striking quotes in the book is an employee recollecting Daniel Ek, the CEO of Spotify, said "Apple Music, Amazon, these aren't our competitors. Our only competitor is silence." Even more frightening are the details around the rampant surveillance capitalism where every single click on the app is tracked in some way to then be monetized back to artists and labels.

This book has really changed the way I think about Spotify and I recommend it to anyone wanting to understand the complexities behind streaming culture and also some of the rays of light around how folks are working to make music consumption better for the musicians. I will note that the book can feel quite slow, and is, understandably, pretty gloomy - but the research within is incredible and worth reading.

Thank you very much to Atria Books and to NetGalley for the advanced copy.

Incredibly interesting deep dive into Spotify and how it's changed the way we listen to music. I am such a huge fan of Liz Pelly so getting her take and research on this topic was a treat!

DNF--too in the weeds for me. It is unfortunate because the premise of the book sounded interesting.

Do you use Spotify? Do you get excited when Wrapped comes out each December? Do you spend time wondering how the algorithm works and how songs are recommended to you? That’s how I came in to reading Mood Machine.

I learned a lot while reading this - so many sections highlighted and I had lots of conversations about it as I read. However there were also parts that felt a little bogged down for me with too much information. It covered a lot of topics related to Spotify and some definitely resonated more with me than others. I look forward to discussing this more with friends as they read it. Also curious to see if Spotify will carry the audiobook haha.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the free ebook to review.

This is not just a basic history lesson on the founding of a multi-million dollar tech company: this is a larger conversation on the music industry at large. Liz Pelly has interview & anecdotal material that goes deep into the industry at large. It was highly informative to learn about the significant changes streaming has made to the industry at large, and how Spotify is not the champion of the “level playing field” it claims to be.

This is not normally my type of book - I rarely read business & finance - but this was well researched and presented in an accessible way. Pelly is clearly very knowledgeable on the subject.

Overall an educating - and slightly anger-inducing - read!

Thank you to NetGalley, Liz Pelly, and Atria Books for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I had really high hopes for the history of Spotify and learning about the underbelly of the music industry. Brought me back to my college days downloading songs on limewire and Kazaa. This was a bit too dense for me and I had a hard time getting into it.

Thank you Netgalley and Atria Books | Atria/One Signal Publishers for the advanced reader copy.

How often do you take a moment to consider how something you use frequently actually was created and functions? For many fans of music, Spotify has for many years seemed like a great way to listen to your favorite artists, discover new ones or create your own playlists. But, as with many of the widely used wonders of the internet age, there are hidden costs to using Spotify, both to the consumers, musicians and our cultural creativity. Liz Pelly's Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist based on extensive research and interviews traces Spotify from its 2006 origins as a commercial content sharing platform to its present incarnation that seeks to be the definitive place for recorded audio content, be it music, podcasts or audiobooks.

Chapters are arranged thematically, but the narrative unfolds mostly chronologically. From the origins, the eventual decision to focus on music in the wake of peer-to-peer sharing controversies through the agreements with major labels and the setting of royalties. And while widely assumed to be at least a penny, the figure received by the majority of artists could be 0.0035 per stream or less. Pelly continually shows that despite how Spotify attempts to portray themselves as a heroic or ethical alternative to piracy , or that they support artists, in general the major label artists are still the ones benefiting the most from the music industry.

A continual focus is on the way Spotify functions and despite making its owners lots of money, generally does not turn much of a profit. Ways the owners have streamlined operations is to have sound alike recordings, first by session musicians and now by AI produced content. Both of which Spotify is likely to have a stake in the recording company responsible and can therefore pay lower or no royalties. These tracks are then in turn used to populate widely used playlists. As yes another company competing in the attention economy, musicians looking to make a name for themselves have followed the trends changing their sound or song writing process to better match what is currently popular on Spotify. And much like with Amazon, or other companies trying to capture our attention, everything is tracked. That data in turn can then be sold to other parties.

As someone who worked and took part in an independent music scene, Pelly convincingly argues that our present streaming did not have to happen this way, and that there are still other ways of disseminating and sharing music. The latter of these points is explored in the conclusion.

Mood Machine is a hard look at the state of the music industry in our streaming age that shows the major labels are still in control and that their are other options, but change will require legal changes and more direct support of artists.

Recommend to readers of modern music, technology, or business.

(Reviewed by Don Jung)

i was hoping the book would be more about the creative process and how these individuals were able to invent the
programs for Spotify and other music platforms. Instead it was more of a chronological history of what and who
were doing it without any emphasis on how they came about their process and their achievements.

It did not hold my interest, so I cannot recommend this book.

DNF. This book was a bit more industry focused than I originally realized and a lot was going over my head. It’s incredibly thorough and well researched and I’m sure it’s very informative to those that understand. I just didn’t find it super accessible to the every day person.

Atria Books provided an early galley for review.

As a card-carrying member of Gen-X, I tend to not stream music myself. If I want to listen to things, I use playlists from my own personal music library. However, I get the appeal of these services, especially amongst the younger generations. Still, I was fascinated to learn more about the inner-workings of Spotify and thus was attracted to this upcoming book.

I was not aware that a lot of the streaming services were born out of the file-sharing piracy activities of the late 90's and early 2000's as a method to counter the use of technology in those endeavors. I also found it interesting that one of the goals for Spotify was "mood inducing" (thus the title of this book), a concept that dates all the way back to the original phonograph records by Thomas Edison and starting in the 1940's with the creation of Muzak for work places and retail stores. The discussion of AI usage to analyze and prioritize songs in playlists for listeners was very topical as well.

The further I delved into Pelly's well-researched treatise the more I came to realize why streaming services failed to pull me in. Here they were focusing on the passive listener, the one who wanted background music that set a mood. That's not the way my music listening experiences were built growing up. I was very much about the song and by extension the album - the creative expression of the artist. The closest I'd ever get to a "mood" playlist would be bringing together tracks to supporting a night of dancing (which, while having some emotional threads is much more about physical exertion).

I certainly appreciated Mood Machine as it gave me quite a bit to think about.

I'm not a user of Spotify so this was eye opening in more ways than one. Pelly has written a well researched look at the music business and the business of music. Spotify might be the current villain (or savior depending on your perspective) in the marketing of artists' work but it's bigger than that. I found this accessible and fascinating. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A very good read.

Mood Machine will be a great gift for any music lover. It was interesting as a millennial to read about the evolution of digital music, both through downloading (legally and illegally) and how streaming services came into power. Thank you to Netgalley for this arc ebook in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

This was a well-researched, deep dive into Spotify's history, controversy, and ever-changing impact. Liz Pelly clearly cares very deeply about music and protecting the livelihoods of artists and provides multiple alternatives for the future of music as a whole.

I greatly enjoyed getting an inside peek into the features of Spotify for Artists, which many people do not have access to. While I have a relatively solid understanding of AI, Pelly still did a wonderful job explaining how AI is changing the face of music and streaming. While some of the policy and financial details were dry, the book overall represents an important addition to the conversation.

Thank you, NetGalley and Atria Books, for an opportunity to read an advanced reader’s copy in exchange for my honest review.

My thanks to NetGalley and Atria/One Signal Publishers for an advance copy of this new book that looks at a company that has changed music in many ways, ways that seem to benefit everyone involved in the sharing of music, but seems to more benefit the bottom line, and stifles creativity from creators and in the people who listen.

I worked in a independent music store at the dawn of Napster and it was an interesting time. We who loved music thought the idea that we could have access to to quote LCD Soundsystem "..a compilation of every good song ever done by anybody", was something that we could all get behind. Again working in a record store, and being a reader of lots of books on music and the music industry I had an idea that there was no way this could ever happen. Too many fingers in too many pies, fighting over too much profit. For a long time this was true, until finally a downturn in the industry, music piracy, techology, and a well crafted plan from two advertisers changed the way we listened to music. In more ways than one. Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist by journalist and music insider and music lover Liz Pelly looks at the start of this ubiquitous app, how it came to be the powerhouse it is, and the many insidious tactics that the company has used to change our ears, stifle competition, and even worse crushing creativity and instilling a blandness that has become accepted.

Spotify began in days when filesharing was becoming the accepted way to acquire and hear new music, though this listening of music and sharing did nothing for those creating or distributing. Sweden it turns out was one of the big hubs for piracy/filesharing, and the technology and the idea of having a service to download songs seemed to fit. There had been many attempts from both the music industry and others to get something up to compete with Apple music, but the tech graveyard was soon getting a lot more occupants. Spotify began with corporations based in tax havens, and made some influential friends, going after the major music corporations and independent labels. The big draw was their playlists. People could pick music based on moods, and featuring songs that seemed familiar, and were crafted that way. Data was also a revenue stream, as was advertising, though Spotify soon was advertising for their ad-free music more than any other advertisers. Strange things were starting to show though. How songs were chosen for playlists. And the amount of ghosts artists, artists who created songs for moods, but seemed not to exist in the physical world. A physical world that was changing the way music was being produced based more on analytics than anything else.

Reading this book it seemed like it was part of a William Gibson novel. A novel about an entertainment program, that promised to make lots of money, but did so by cheating everyone it could, except other rich companies. Actually if I was a rich company I would probably think I was getting ripped off too. Ghost artists creating songs based on other songs, created by ghost artists. Data being more important than the music one listens to. And artists getting the pointed end of the stick. This seems to be common in all forms of entertainment. Streaming movie rights don't pay actors residuals, real numbers are hidden as proprietary information. Streaming songs that sound like elevator to hell music, just cause a person wants something to study to. I was unware of the ghost artist story, as I don't really pay attention to playlists on Spotify. Pelly is a very good writer and researcher, digging deep and finding people to share their stories. And many of this stories show a company that seems to care little about music, and has been very lucky so far. A very interesting profile of a company that seems at the forefront of change, but change that might not be what people want or expect.

I enjoyed this book quite a bit. What I liked most was the fact that people still seem to enjoy music, though it seems that how they hear it and find it, might be a little askew. I understand the convenience of Spotify, but have a feeling the next time my phone says I need to free up some memory, that I know what app I might get rid of.

On the surface, this is a story about the streaming service Spotify. But it is really a story of the music industry in general, and, if we are honest, the story of creative capitalism. It’s very difficult to marry the desires of creative artists with the desires of big business - and this story is full of promises made to artists that needed to be “adapted” in order to create the scale necessary for multimillion dollar international sales. We hear about issues of the rights of artists, privacy, curation, choice of music and musicians, in each case, the company morphs in ways that helps them at the expense of the artists,

Pelly closes the book with a few rays of hope: pending legislation intended to level the playing field between artists and musicians and initiatives by indie artists internationally. But as she has meticulously documented, this is an extremely complex issue and will be difficult to resolve. This well written book (which, to be honest, at times lost me in the complexity of the issue) should serve as a cautionary tale as well as a way forward.

Thanks to Atria and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Loved this book - changed my perspective on Spotify and streaming music. In particular, I found myself reframing my view of "free choice" online - and how spotify's recommendation algorithm is a valuable advertising tool.

I haven't read a nonfiction book in almost 2 years -- mostly because I often can't make my brain retain information like that, and the world is so bad that I usually just want to read romance. But sometimes, I come across a really interesting nonfiction book, and Mood Machine happened to be one of those books. In Mood Machine, Liz Pelly traces the origin story of Spotify as a company founded by two ad execs to today, as Spotify is increasingly engaging in AI-related content and screwing over artists. I'm someone who has Spotify going pretty much all day long while I'm working, and I'm not alone. And that's something that Spotify seeks to take advantage of -- they want to be playing in the background while you're not super paying attention, feeding you playlists of Spotify-generated content that they can pay artists and musicians less to make in exchange for more "promotion." This book also talks about all of the "moods" that Spotify tags music with -- if you've ever been perplexed by a ridiculous daylist, or you wonder why Spotify is not good at grouping music based on lyrics, this book covers that.

I'm glad I read this book -- it gave me a lot to think about in terms of how I consume music, and how I (and we as a society) can be supporting artists and musicians with our money and choices.

As an active Spotify user since it launched, I was excited to peel back the current on the mood machine. This book is meticulously researched and tells a very deep story about Spotify as a tech company, not just a music company. I was blown away by some of the manipulation of users … even though I shouldn’t be because I work in marketing tech!

It was really interesting to learn about the playlist methodology and vision, as well as about the company’s approach to background music. “We’re competing against silence” is the truest competitive statement I’ve ever read.

Now excuse me while I pull up an “ambient music for sleep” playlist and go to bed.

Thank you for the early copy!