liz pelly
@lizpelly.bsky.social
writer in nyc, author of Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist, co-host of @criticallistening.bsky.social lizpelly.info
July 2026 Headlines episode is out now for subscribers at Patreon.com/criticallistening. We dive into the Kalshi power-users who recently learned that streaming is, in fact, not a meritocracy. We also are unpacking the news that SoundCloud has just acquired Nina Protocol. Sign up today!
episode 20 with Panda Bear & Sonic Boom: on why their new album is not streaming, how they got their label on board with that, the differences between gen-ai software and sampling, and more. thanks noah and Peter! out everywhere except spotify www.patreon.com/CriticalList...
Are you a DSA member? You’re eligible for a free one-year subscription to In These Times: 10 issues, no payment information and no strings attached. Available to U.S. members for a limited time, thanks to the @puffinfoundation.bsky.social. Sign up now. www.inthesetimes.com/dsa
there is no song of the summer when you've spent weeks committed to exclusively re-listening to every bob Dylan record in chronological order ahead of forest hills cc @jennpelly.bsky.social
good idea! happy alb release day @sad13.horse and happy first subvert purchase to me
EROCY@erocy.world · last mo.i just bought @sad13.horse's new record on @subvert.fm and 🫵 you 🫵 can too!
a couple weeks late here but I really recommend this piece by @see-saw.fun on the Kings Road Merch Union in Minneapolis & major label union-busting (TLDR a merch warehouse was sold by Epitath to Sony, long-time workers/musicians unionized, now Sony plans to shut it down) see-saw.fun/minneapolis-...
minneapolis punks voted to unionize a merch warehouse. sony music plans to shut it down.
Kings Road employs punk artists and produces merch for some of the world’s biggest punk bands. The morning of the union’s first day of bargaining, owners Sony Music revealed plans to shutter the workp...
see-saw.fun
basic income for artists *mentioned* at the ny-7 congressional debate. thank you @claireforny.bsky.social !
next up in my return to occasional all-ages show booking:: so excited to be presenting an nyc album release show for Katie Alice Greer at the living gallery on Saturday June 6! tix available here: pools.events/event/0eMynN...
Sat, Jun 6 - Katie Alice Greer + TBA @ Living Gallery by Show the Seams
Katie Alice Greer + TBA @ Living Gallery by Show the Seams on Sat, Jun 6 at 7:30pm at The Living Gallery, 1094 Broadway, NY. Get tickets and event details on Pools.
pools.events
So much attention has been paid to the Musk v. Altman trial. But real accountability for the AI industry will not come from a billionaire mudfight. It will come from the movements around the world resisting the empires of AI. My op-ed for @theguardian.com. www.theguardian.com/technology/c...
The Elon Musk v Sam Altman battle is a distraction | Karen Hao
Fixating on questions of whether Altman is untrustworthy, or whether Musk is even less so distracts from a far deeper problem with AI
theguardian.com
will be these places in Europe this month launching the French and Italian editions of Mood Machine >> 5/16 Turin @ Off Topic 5/17 Turin @ Sala Internazionale 5/19 Milan @ Volume BK 5/20 Bologna @ Modo Infoshop 5/26 Brussels @ Ancienne Belgique 5/29 Paris @ Le Monte en l’Air
Rencontre avec Liz Pelly autour du livre 'La machine Spotify'
Rencontre avec Liz Pelly autour du livre ’La machine Spotify’
Les Allumés du Jazz invitent Liz Pelly à la librairie le Monte-en-l’air (2, rue de la Mare, 75020 Paris) le vendredi 29 mai à 19h30 à l’occasion de la sortie de son nouvel ouvrage ’La machine (…)
agendamilitant.org
The pivot of the Spotify guy from consumer-facing music platform to one-way drones and AI targeting tools is almost too tidy.
next up in my return to occasional all-ages show booking:: so excited to be presenting an nyc album release show for Katie Alice Greer at the living gallery on Saturday June 6! tix available here: pools.events/event/0eMynN...
Sat, Jun 6 - Katie Alice Greer + TBA @ Living Gallery by Show the Seams
Katie Alice Greer + TBA @ Living Gallery by Show the Seams on Sat, Jun 6 at 7:30pm at The Living Gallery, 1094 Broadway, NY. Get tickets and event details on Pools.
pools.events
the gen Xers are fighting about poptimism and rockism again when we really need to be fighting about📢unchecked corporate consolidation in the music biz 📢 cmon guys
I'll be presenting at this next week! Really looking forward to all of the papers --->
Michaelangelo Matos@matoswk.bsky.social · 3mo agoTwin Cities: this conference on AI and the music biz looks really good. Today is the last day to register; it happens this coming Mon-Tue. cla.umn.edu/statistics/n...
pvd pop fest confirmed this as song of the spring🌼 touchgirlappleblossom.bandcamp.com/track/the-sp...
I am a huge fan of this band for lots of reasons & their commitment to financial transparency is one of them--> loscampesinos.substack.com/p/los-camp-p...
📈 Los Camp! Present Their Tour Accounts
🔍 A detailed breakdown of the cost of our 2024 North American Tour
loscampesinos.substack.com
I've been booking diy shows on and off for 15+ years and I think last night was the first time I brought a boombox and a stack of cassettes for the house music between bands. highly rec
FT asked me to weigh in on the debates around paid UGC campaigns, so I tried to emphasize what I think is important, which is calling out unlabeled advertising in its many forms -- and that the agencies themselves might be using these narratives to overhype their services www.ft.com/content/9c26...
Has taste in music been hijacked?
Digital marketers admit to flooding sites with fake comments to promote acts, posing a disturbing threat to media integrity
ft.com
liz pelly@lizpelly.bsky.social · 3mo agoFT asked me to weigh in on the debates around paid UGC campaigns, so I tried to emphasize what I think is important, which is calling out unlabeled advertising in its many forms -- and that the agencies themselves might be using these narratives to overhype their services www.ft.com/content/9c26...
Everyone being okay with slop is the scariest part. "Several tens of thousands of AI-generated tracks are now delivered to streaming services every day, and a survey last year, commissioned by music platform Deezer, showed that 97 per cent of listeners cannot identify them."
liz pelly@lizpelly.bsky.social · 3mo agoFT asked me to weigh in on the debates around paid UGC campaigns, so I tried to emphasize what I think is important, which is calling out unlabeled advertising in its many forms -- and that the agencies themselves might be using these narratives to overhype their services www.ft.com/content/9c26...
Let me emphasize Liz's point here: Who benefits from you believing that these campaigns work? Agencies are just sales people, selling marketing services. They don't really care if they work, but they care if clients believe they do.
liz pelly@lizpelly.bsky.social · 3mo agoFT asked me to weigh in on the debates around paid UGC campaigns, so I tried to emphasize what I think is important, which is calling out unlabeled advertising in its many forms -- and that the agencies themselves might be using these narratives to overhype their services www.ft.com/content/9c26...
FT asked me to weigh in on the debates around paid UGC campaigns, so I tried to emphasize what I think is important, which is calling out unlabeled advertising in its many forms -- and that the agencies themselves might be using these narratives to overhype their services www.ft.com/content/9c26...
Has taste in music been hijacked?
Digital marketers admit to flooding sites with fake comments to promote acts, posing a disturbing threat to media integrity
ft.com
platforms came into being to convert sociality into consumerism, and a primary legacy of the social media era is that we are more prone to think that consumerism (fandoms) is the only way to be social
I don't remember who I voted for in the nyt poll but I know I voted for Joanna newsom, the greatest living American songwriter
tomorrow! very excited to be in conversation with my favorite food writer @aliciadkennedy.bsky.social for her salon series. it's happening online at 11am and you can join us >>> alicia-kennedy.com/salon/p/the-...
The Desk Salon Series Invites Liz Pelly — ALICIA KENNEDY
Liz Pelly is a writer who, like me, grew up on Long Island. I’m so excited to have a conversation about her work on Spotify, streaming, and the labor conditions of musicians, because I think it will p...
alicia-kennedy.com
sometimes I like to open the spreadsheet of every show that happened at silent barn to see what was goin on 10 years ago. April 26 2016 we were hosting something called "Conference of The Shred" (mems guerilla toss, PC worship) & a band called Dear Leader (mems celestial shore, JOBS). good stuff!
great piece by my sister on p4k today. I especially enjoyed the lore from morby's early days in NYC and the stories from her trip to Kansas City. I know I am biased but I always think Jenn's are masterclass profiles - pitchfork.com/features/lif...
Life & Death in Kevin Morby’s Midwest
On the eve of fatherhood, Kevin Morby is celebrating a life less haunted. We visit the singer-songwriter at his home outside Kansas City to drink some beers, talk about his sprawlingly intimate new al...
pitchfork.com
