Liz Pelly – författare

A 2025 BOOK OF THE YEAR PICK IN: The Guardian, The Telegraph, GQ and The Wire'Passionate and rigorous... riveting' Financial Times'[a] cool-headed but powerful polemic...' Sunday Times' A studs-up assault on streaming economics' The Guardian'A vital addition to the genre... arrives not a moment too soon' The TelegraphAn unsparing investigation into Spotify's origins and influence on music, weaving unprecedented reporting with incisive cultural criticism, illuminating how streaming is reshaping music for listeners and artists alike.Drawing on over one hundred interviews with industry insiders, former Spotify employees, and musicians, Mood Machine takes us to the inner workings of today's highly consolidated record business, showing what has changed as music has become increasingly playlisted, personalized, and autoplayed.Building on her years of wide-ranging reporting on streaming, music journalist Liz Pelly details the consequences of the Spotify model by examining both sides of what the company calls its two-sided marketplace: the listeners who pay with their dollars and data, and the musicians who provide the material powering it all. The music business is notoriously opaque, but here Pelly lifts the veil on major stories like streaming services filling popular playlists with low-cost stock music and the rise of new payola-like practices.For all of the inequities exacerbated by streaming, Pelly also finds hope in chronicling the artist-led fight for better models, pointing toward what must be done collectively to revalue music and create sustainable systems. A timely exploration of a company that has become synonymous with music, Mood Machine will change the way you think about and listen to music.

A 2025 BOOK OF THE YEAR PICK IN: The Guardian, The Telegraph, GQ and The Wire'Passionate and rigorous... riveting' Financial Times'[a] cool-headed but powerful polemic...' Sunday Times' A studs-up assault on streaming economics' The Guardian'A vital addition to the genre... arrives not a moment too soon' The TelegraphAn unsparing investigation into Spotify's origins and influence on music, weaving unprecedented reporting with incisive cultural criticism, illuminating how streaming is reshaping music for listeners and artists alike.Drawing on over a hundred interviews with industry insiders, former Spotify employees, and musicians, Mood Machine takes us to the inner workings of today's highly consolidated record business, showing what has changed as music has become increasingly playlisted, personalized, and autoplayed.Building on her years of wide-ranging reporting on streaming, music journalist Liz Pelly details the consequences of the Spotify model by examining both sides of what the company calls its two-sided marketplace: the listeners who pay with their dollars and data, and the musicians who provide the material powering it all. The music business is notoriously opaque, but here Pelly lifts the veil on major stories like streaming services filling popular playlists with low-cost stock music and the rise of new payola-like practices.For all of the inequities exacerbated by streaming, Pelly also finds hope in chronicling the artist-led fight for better models, pointing toward what must be done collectively to revalue music and create sustainable systems. A timely exploration of a company that has become synonymous with music, Mood Machine will change the way you think about and listen to music.

'Passionate and rigorous... riveting' Financial Times'[a] cool-headed but powerful polemic...' Sunday Times'A thoroughly convincing argument that Spotify's success has had a disastrous effect on pop music...' The Guardian'A vital addition to the genre... arrives not a moment too soon' The TelegraphTHIS BOOK WILL CHANGE HOW YOU THINK ABOUT, AND CHOOSE TO LISTEN TO, MUSICStreaming is reshaping music for artists and listeners alike. Until now, the cultural ramifications of these seismic shifts have been underexplored.Drawing on over one hundred interviews with industry insiders, former Spotify employees, and musicians, Mood Machine takes us to the inner workings of today's highly consolidated record business.Building on her years of wide-ranging reporting on streaming, music journalist Liz Pelly details the consequences of the Spotify model by examining both sides of what the company calls its two-sided marketplace: the listeners who pay with their dollars and data, and the musicians who provide the material powering it all.As music has become increasingly playlisted, personalized, and autoplayed, the stakes for artists and listeners alike have never been higher. Mood Machine is an essential read for any music fan seeking a deeper understanding of how we listen now.