The rise of algorithmic curation and AI-generated content has sent this into overdrive: On Spotify, music is detached from its human creators and flattened into algorithmically-generated playlists with hashtag-able labels like “Lo-Fi Chillwave Anime Vibes.”

Ever get the vibe that the vibe is... off ? That’s because Spotify is filling them with “ghost artists”—fake musicians producing cheap, generic tracks — stock music that they can stuff into playlists as a way to prevent paying higher royalties.5 These songs, often created by stock music companies like Epidemic Sound, are prioritized over real... See more