journalists noted that Epidemic Sound also supplies background tracks to competitors like YouTube and that platforms like Amazon and Apple Music have been known to license cheaper production music. Nevertheless, the breadth of the PFC program was unique: It was at least suspected to be the largest of its kind in the streaming business and was certainly the biggest on Spotify. Moreover, Spotify’s own green image as a benevolent disrupter, the tech company that leveled the playing field for indie artists and listeners alike, was now in jeopardy. Various sources wondered aloud whether the company’s moves into podcasting and the metaverse were efforts to more directly monetize its user base, given how much music on the platform now seemed to come from a hands-off—and highly profitable—source. Meanwhile, the organized mainstream music industry seemed less concerned about the rise of the fake artists than about using other new digital tools to maintain control. Record labels have long utilized practices known as “buy-on” or “pay-for-play” to get their songs on commercial radio. But Spotify’s approach seemed more opaque and decentralized: Some executives from the major labels viewed PFC as a method of nudging Spotify toward an even lesser royalty rate, allowing the company to continue extracting value from a largely consensus-free h
https://harpers.org/archive/2025/01/the-ghosts-in-the-machine-liz-pelly-spotify-musicians/