Mood Machine

'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 Telegraph

THIS BOOK WILL CHANGE HOW YOU THINK ABOUT, AND CHOOSE TO LISTEN TO, MUSIC

Streaming 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, personalised, 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.