[distances]

I've been reading about Spotify pushing generated music but haven't seen that myself so I'm interested to know in what context it happens. Is it certain music styles? Spotify's own playlists? That smart shuffle feature?

I listen mostly in the old school way, full albums of my favourite artists, so I suppose it would be quite unexpected to stumble into AI music this way.

[beberlei]

I believe if you go down the rabbit hole of "mood playlists" and spotify created playlists, then you'll get a lot of tracks that they don't need to pay royalties for and that could probably include AI generated music.

If you are explictitly looking for music by specific artists, then you get their music obviously.

[Mistletoe]

Is there a good way to know if what you are listening to is AI? I listen to a lot of outrun and synthwave type stuff and it isn’t as easy as googling the artist’s name, a lot of it is made by artists that don’t tour and are quite small etc.

[troupo]

> then you'll get a lot of tracks that they don't need to pay royalties for

I love this conspiracy theory. Which track doesn't Spotify pay royalties for? Considering that it licenses 100% of its music from external distributors.

[gkoz]

After an album ends Spotify keeps playing some related music. It's expected to include some tracks that are new to you. Then suddenly you notice "artists" you've never heard of with empty descriptions and "albums" from 2025 only.

[distances]

I've disabled that autoplay ages ago. When I listen album by album I need to have one end to start the next.

[bossyTeacher]

> After an album ends Spotify keeps playing some related music.

Partially correct. That only happens if you don't have the loop functionality activated.

[gatefolded]

Liz Pelly's book covers this in depth. It's mostly in Spotify's mood and activity playlists ('Chill Vibes', 'Deep Focus', 'Peaceful Piano'). Spotify realized they could save on royalties by paying producers a flat fee to bang out dozens of tracks under fake artist names. "Ghost artists" with no online presence, no merch, no tours, just millions of streams. Pelly calls it 'leanback listening' - music designed to fill silence rather than be actively chosen. If you mainly listen to specific artists you seek out, you'd never encounter it.

[quickthrowman]

I’m the same as you, I search for artists I like and then listen to albums, saving them in my library. I never see any AI generated music or podcasts because I just listen to music.

I have more than enough music made by humans to listen to for the rest of my life without ever turning to algorithmic recommendations.

[wartywhoa23]

This. Lazy/mindless consumption without any discernment has been leading to various rabbit holes for quite a while. Ever saw youtube content which algorithm brings toddlers to if left alone with a device?

Autopilot in, autopilot out.

But still fuck this AI slop.