What’s wrong with Spotify?

Spotify is bad, apparently. The charges levied against the app are that it stifles artists by paying them a pittance and listeners with its all-pervasive algorithm. ‘How Spotify ruined music,’ was the title of one recent Washington Post article, while the New Yorker asked ‘Is there any escape from Spotify syndrome?’ going onto conclude that ‘what we have now is a perverse, frictionless vision for art, where a song stays on repeat not because it’s our new favourite but because it’s just pleasant enough to ignore’.

Interest in iPods is to be on the rise, with music influencers insisting that they’re a better option because they’re algorithm free. Kyle Chayka, the author of Filterworld, argues that ‘algorithmic feeds eventually route you toward the lowest common denominator’. Spotify’s bots have dulled our taste in music, or so the argument goes.