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A detailed new report in Harper’s Magazine has alleged that Spotify is seeding some of its biggest playlists with what are known as “ghost artists,” a small group of musicians who create large amounts of music to be distributed across the platform. According to writer Liz Pelly’s report, the music provided through this method is subject to lower royalty rates and helps boost the streaming company’s profit margins.
The report suggests that the practice is most rife across instrumental-heavy playlists focused on genres such as lo-fi hip-hop, jazz, ambient, and classical. The playlist Deep Focus, with over 4.5 million subscribers, is among those namechecked in the article as relying on what is known internally as Perfect Fit Content.
PFC was first introduced in 2017 with partners creating music to be shared across hundreds of artist profiles, many of which are otherwise empty. The appeal being that fewer royalties are paid out to real artists, with the money instead going to the PFC partners. It is alleged that around 20 songwriters are behind the work of more than five hundred “artists,” with their streaming numbers in the millions.
As Pelly writes, PFC “puts forth an image of a future in which—as streaming services push music further into the background, and normalize anonymous, low-cost playlist filler—the relationship between listener and artist might be severed completely.”
Some other popular playlists named in the report include Ambient Relaxation, Deep Focus, Cocktail Jazz, and Bossa Nova Dinner. It is also alleged that Spotify editors and curators who resisted PFC content have been sidelined or even replaced by those more willing to include the ghost artists on the playlists. It is also mentioned that Spotify could use AI to curate playlists in the future.
The FADER has reached out to Spotify for comment.