Music journalist Liz Pelly joins us to discuss her new book The Mood Machine the Rise of Spotify and the Cost of the Perfect Playlist.

How did the DIY culture of mixtapes and file sharing move towards massive streaming platforms? And with nearly every song freely accessible why are so many listening to elevator music instead?

You can listen to this full episode gratis by signing up at our free membership tier over at patreon.com/theAntifada

Links to Liz's work:

https://harpers.org/archive/2025/01/the-ghosts-in-the-machine-liz-pelly-spotify-musicians/

https://thebaffler.com/downstream/big-mood-machine-pelly

https://thebaffler.com/downstream/streambait-pop-pelly

https://thebaffler.com/downstream/wrapped-and-sold-pelly https://thebaffler.com/latest/podcast-overlords-pelly

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Music/image: Lo-Fi Girl