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Mood Machine
The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist
Brief Description
'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...
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Format: Paperback / softback
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See moreA SEARING INVESTIGATION INTO HOW SPOTIFY HAS DRASTICALLY CHANGED MUSIC FOREVER
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Description
'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.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781399718882
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 18 June 2026
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Hodder Paperback
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Width: 129.0mm
Height: 198.0mm
Weight: 250g
Pages: 288
About the Author
Liz Pelly is a journalist living in New York. Her essays and reporting have appeared in the Baffler, where she is a contributing editor, as well as in the Guardian, NPR, Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, and many other outlets. She frequently speaks about music streaming on radio shows and podcasts, including appearances on The New York Times' Popcast, NPR's Morning Edition, and others. Pelly teaches in the recorded music program at New York University and has spent over a decade involved in all-ages show booking.
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Mood Machine
An 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...Paperback$3999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
Mood Machine
NATIONAL BESTSELLER Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Prize Winner of a Certificate of Merit from the 2025 ARSC Awards for Excellence A New Yorker, GQ, The Daily Telegraph (London), and Library Journal Best Book of 2025 A 2025 Washington Post Notable Nonfiction An NPR Books We Love Most pick An unsparing investigation into Spotify's origins and...Paperback$5300Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 2-3 weeks
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