Is Spotify responsible for the rise of ‘ghost artists’?
X user, elizabeth handgun (@OneFeIISwoop), sparked a debate on the authenticity of Spotify-curated playlists and the platform’s alleged use of ‘fake artists’.
The user featured a playlist named “Jazz for Reading,” which is presumed to be filled with tracks from non-existent artists. She got suspicious at first due to the striking acoustic similarities across tracks. This made them sound like they’d been recorded using the same digital instrument setting.
Her curiosity took a deeper turn when she noticed the lack of artist photos or discoverable profiles. This hints at a potentially synthetic origin for these musical pieces.
The Curious Case of Spotify’s Jazz for Reading Playlist
The controversy began when @OneFeIISwoop shared observations about the “Jazz for Reading” playlist.
Her curiosity led her to an artist bio that contained an email address. Upon investigation, this redirected her to a music NFT sales website.
The artist’s bio painted a vivid picture of a collective of jazz musicians inspired by the smoky jazz clubs of 1940s Chicago. Yet, this digital trail raised more questions than it answered about the artists’ real identities and the nature of their music.
Further exploration by the user uncovered articles that have previously tackled the issue of so-called fake artists on Spotify.
She retweeted Tyler Golsen’s piece in Far Out Magazine and Tim Ingham’s report on Music Business Worldwide.
These discussed the financial motivations behind Spotify’s alleged creation and promotion of fake music. They suggest that Spotify might have been involved in creating or promoting music from non-human entities as early as 2015.
Here, Spotify is said to collaborate with various musicians to mass produce different audio tracks. The platform then allegedly promotes this music under various artists’ names. This presumably helps them keep a significant portion of streaming revenue “in-house” by avoiding traditional artist royalties.
Community Outrage
The community’s response was swift and varied. But, many expressed their disillusionment and concern over Spotify’s music curation practices.
Some users, like Séamus (@damnation_space), criticized the economic motivations behind the streaming service’s reliance on generic music.
This was echoed by other users who also claimed to have discovered similar playlists filled with “AI artists”.
Amidst the critique, some users offered practical advice to circumvent the algorithmically curated sameness.
