“According to one source, a huge amount of streaming music originates from just 20 people, who operate under 500 different names.”
Liz Pelly’s Harper’s investigation gives the scheme a name: Perfect Fit Content. Spotify partners with production companies and has staff seed their tracks into ambient, classical, jazz and lo-fi playlists, growing the share of streams that costs it less. Musicians who supply PFC give up royalty rights. When employees objected, managers said listeners wouldn’t know the difference. In the 1950s this was called payola.