Mood Machine

Since Spotify launched in 2008, music streaming services have steadily encroached on our lives. Streaming was sold as a legal alternative to piracy. But in reality, it was an untenable model that enriched a small number of executives while pillaging music communities and exploiting listeners.

Mood Machine tells the story of the so-called streaming revolution by reckoning with both sides of what Spotify refers to as its two-sided marketplace: the listeners who pay with their dollars and data, and the musicians who provide the material powering it all (and are increasingly charged fees to access their fans).

With testimony from industry insiders and artists alike, Pelly will give voice to the new discontent, and sketch out how the ecstasy and diversity and connection of music can be preserved for future generations.

Liz Pelly is a writer and editor based in New York. She is at work on her first book, Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist, to be published in 2025 by Astra House. Her byline has appeared at The Baffler, Guardian, NPR, Pioneer Works Broadcast, and many other outlets. She is an adjunct instructor at NYU Tisch.

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