The Pop Corporation

Any musician who has uploaded their music to Spotify as an independent artist knows how futile it all is, expecting to end up on any of the editorial lists made by the company, which help push songs to millions of people using their front page.

The fact is, if you don’t have the connections through a large publishing wing, large record company, or anyone else with a load of money to throw at it, you’re basically crossing your fingers that a non-affiliated user – like a magazine or DJ – will share it on one of their playlists to their fans.

Some are equating all this to the payola scandal.

For those unaware, payola was (is?) an illegal practice undertaken by radio stations and DJs, where bribes are taken to push a record. Freebies, holidays, and all manner of things have been used to persuade stations to treat certain music more favourably. Songs like Iggy Azalea’s ‘Fancy’ and Limp Bizkit’s ‘Counterfeit’ have been heavily implicated in such moves, but it has been a blight on the industry since radio has been a thing.

Now, a class action lawsuit is being thrown the way of Spotify, which claims the streaming giant has been dishonest with its Discovery Mode, which uses the algorithm to suggest music to listeners.

Plaintiff Genevieve Capolongo has filed the suit in a New York federal court which accuses Spotify of deceptive business practices and false advertising, adding that the company has enriched itself based on the ‘false promise’ of personalised recommendations. It suggests that Discovery Mode is a “pay-for-play scheme”, with Spotify recommending “the same major-label tracks” from artists like Drake, Zach Bryan and Justin Bieber that “bore little resemblance to her listening habits,” despite promising “a personalised listening experience built around her own tastes.”

Now, Spotify have dismissed this notion, but have acknowledged on their website that “commercial considerations” may influence songs recommended through the service’s Discovery Mode.

Capolongo alleges further that “Spotify’s insistence on replaying the same songs” has “fuelled conspiracy theories,” especially around the likes of Sabrina Carpenter’s ‘Espresso’ and ‘Please Please Please’. It is worth noting that any of the artists mentioned haven’t been accused of anything – Spotify is the only defendant here.

Interestingly, Spotify take a 30% commission of the royalties earned when any user streams a song that has been boosted in Discovery Mode, but only when the track has been streamed by their algorithm, like a mix or autoplay after you’ve finished listening to what you’ve queued up.

This isn’t the first time the law professional and academics have looked at the way Spotify works, and this one is set to rumble on.

More when we get it.