I would highly recommend that folks read Liz Pelly's <i>Mood Machine</i>, which is referenced here via the <i>Harper's</i> excerpt, not just because it shows artists' perspectives on the long tail model that tech pitched to them, but because it can be read as an indictment of the platform model that increasingly dictates how we engage with art and society at large. Pelly's account really gets to the heart of the problem: these platforms are neither neutral nor meritocracies and don't care about the content that they host. Sounds obvious, yes, but reading about the concrete consequences of this fact, namely the aesthetic flattening that results from conditioning the audience to listen to music passively, definitely got me to reexamine how I was using Spotify and consuming music in general. It really drove home the fact that some people treat art as a fungible object, and that these folks are the people deciding what music we're hearing unless we really make an effort to seek it out on our own.<p>Is the model profitable? For some. Good for society? Perhaps not.<p>EDIT: also want to concur with others here that the problem here isn't necessarily AI but how we're selecting what music we're listening to. In the book, Pelly specifically identifies channels like Chilled Cow as being part of the watering down of this genre, since they have a similar incentive to play music at as low a cost to the channel as possible versus playing the best music available to them.
AI seems like a scapegoat here when I think the real answer is simply that it was a tired genre that died out like many music fads over the years. (Everyone could learn how to make these with a 10 minute youtube tutorial which flooded the market, independent of AI.)
There seems to be a lot of anger around Spotify these days, often misplaced I reckon.<p>One of the biggest impediments to new artists making a living from recorded music is not the existence of Spotify and other streaming platforms, rather it's the massive and growing library of existing music, some of which is excellent.<p>But it's not impossible. My neighbor manages his music career himself. In 2024 he went from having 250,000 monthly Spotify listeners to 800,000. A few months ago he was able to give up his job and devote himself to music full time - he is getting decent streaming royalty checks.<p>If you complain that Spotify is contributing to a generic and bland listening experience then that is totally your own fault. Spotify will give you excellent and adventurous listening experiences, but you have to put in the time to 'train' your personal algorithms first, mainly by liking tracks, saving albums and playlists, and making playlists. Also: by paying attention to DJs/curators and researching dark corners of the music blogosphere, SoundCloud and Mixcloud.
> We can support musicians we like by adding them to our personal playlists and playing their music every day.<p>We can also just <i>buy their albums</i> like ye olden times. Buy tracks for $1.29 like ye slightly less olden times! If you have disposable income, buy albums! It's easy and also fun.
> For Japanese soundtrack producer Nujabes, the “lofi” sound wasn’t an aesthetic choice. It was an artifact of creating such forward thinking music with the dusty equipment from 20 years ago.<p>I trying to figure out where the author got this from? Audio hardware/software hasn't changed that much in 20 years, and Nujabes' lofi aesthetic seems intentional.<p>According to Wikipedia, it originated from an effect button on Roland samplers: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lofi_hip-hop" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lofi_hip-hop</a>
>The Lofi style itself is nothing new, Lofi beats bear a striking resemblance to instrumental hip hop of the 90s and 2000s.<p>Lofi IS instrumental hip hop. Dilla was doing this in the 90s.
I used to work in the record industy. If you want to understand how artist royalties work the seminal article on the topic was written by Steve Albini and is highly reccomended. <a href="https://thebaffler.com/salvos/the-problem-with-music" rel="nofollow">https://thebaffler.com/salvos/the-problem-with-music</a>
Spotify and other streaming sites also killed mixtapes of rappers on other people's beats.<p>The AI generated stuff will probably be good for its intended purpose white noise with a beat to help you study but its unlikely you'll find you're next favorite artist
Lofi Girl still has an active audience. >100k for each video. GameChops has a channel as well with >5k & <100k for each video.<p>The Musician's story adds to the vibe. If someone can relate to the creator, it helps to create more connection with the audience than a pure algorithm. The human curated/generated animations seem more coherent...even if it's on a loop.<p>I like some of the new AI animations for being novel...mostly futuristic. Though this will soon become common & something new will show up.
Does anyone ever comply with these "As listeners we must band together" things? I couldn't care less. I like the lo-fi sound myself and put on some Nujabes while in the kitchen. It's a good time.<p>But whether any specific artist gets to play or not doesn't concern me that much. I've found that single artists rarely preserve the feel so much as ones in a genre.
As a long time (actual) hip-hop fan, I do find it <i>quite</i> hard to muster sympathy for this weirdly isolated, and perhaps disposable, genre? Kind of like, okay, how much did you try to build with the origins of the thing you're using to make new music?<p>Reminds me a bit of "nerdcore" hip-hop; which also made little sense because e.g. Del the Funkee Homosapien and RZA were also nerds making VERY nerdy music, but for "some reason" weren't seen as the same thing.
I'd like to do a tangential mention of SomaFM, web radio that does electronic chill and mood music very well and has survived for a long time on donations.<p><a href="https://somafm.com/" rel="nofollow">https://somafm.com/</a>
Spotify is ardently anti-consumer and anti-artist. Their business model extracts revenue by siphoning off artist royalties through label rev-share and then compounds the issue by restricting royalty payouts. Further siphoning off revenue by loading the playlist with AI-trash is not even their worst offense. They're a company begging for an artist boycott.
Is there a website that let me auto-queue music based on what I have listened to in the past, and is not a for-profit algorithm like Youtube and Spotify?<p>With Youtube, I feel like I am the product, and they can't wait to put "sponsored" songs into my feed.
> For us listeners, it’s more important than ever to seek out real
artists.<p>I can understand listening to genai music as a background space filler
but music has more functions.<p>It is a signifier and mnemonic, and sets mood for production.<p>Everything on <a href="https://cybershow.uk" rel="nofollow">https://cybershow.uk</a> is made in house, on the fly as
needed. We mostly use Ardour, Audacity and some weird old computer
music tools like Csound, Puredata, Supercollider for all the beds and
backings, many of which are in the old-skool, lo-fi styles because
these sit behind talk as 'beds' very nicely.<p>It would be easy to grab licensed tracks or use "AI" to make music,
but we don't do that. That's mainly because its better to keep control
over the feel and exactly craft everything. An example is this
poetry episode [0] where everything is cut specifically for the poem,
and this latest episode "Owned By Bots" where the grungy "crime beat"
is a main feature [1]<p>[0] <a href="https://cybershow.uk/episodes.php?id=13" rel="nofollow">https://cybershow.uk/episodes.php?id=13</a><p>[1] <a href="https://cybershow.uk/episodes.php?id=38" rel="nofollow">https://cybershow.uk/episodes.php?id=38</a>
I do not dispute that Spotify creates "perfect fit content" tracks. What I will dispute is that, artists with generic bios and AI sounding tracks, are always Spotify tools.
I love lofi I was actually creating a few lofi tracks and doing so taught me a new style, mixing and mastering and release process. If course no money no followers but it’s the creative process. Lofi girl is about the only thing I listen to in that genre on Spotify.<p>For all it’s “Ai playlist promotion is bad” Spotify will only play things that someone somehow got through their editorals
AI is best stated as a tool to permit wealth to access skill without skill being permitted to access wealth.<p>I've been called a Luddite so many times on this website asking basic questions of how in a world where your labor is required in order for you to earn a living these entire reams of people are meant to continue living, and nobody has an answer.
I highly recommend people stop using music streaming services, they take away the control of the music listener and producers.<p>Bandcamp might be a different story since it has a policy it stands by (for now), provides access to the music downloads and doesn't try to artificially alter their listings, but that can soon change with the new ownership.
Spotify is a blight upon music and it would be better for our culture if it would cease to exist - I have been boycotting these vultures and culture-vampires since day one but apparently I’m a big weirdo Luddite for that.<p>Buy music directly from the artist or on bandcamp, stop supporting Spotify if you give a shit about music
I think it say something about the relatively low-effort nature of this genre that it could be so easily codified and displaced by AI. The human-produced examples in the article follow simple and predictable rules and already sounded pretty artificial before the robots got involved.
Shout out to Flow State (<a href="https://www.flowstate.fm/" rel="nofollow">https://www.flowstate.fm/</a>) for their daily album recs which have served me as a nice alternative to Spotify's lofi for the past few years
Wish on the Beat is on Bandcamp as well, although the embedded youtube track isn't available :( <a href="https://wishlyst.bandcamp.com" rel="nofollow">https://wishlyst.bandcamp.com</a>
> as most punk rockers and rap artists will tell you, once your sound hits the mainstream it’s time to move on<p>This is a really interesting quote. I definitely feel that there are analogies in other fields as well.
Glad to see the latest generation coming online has rediscovered and embraced adult contemporary genre / muzak / elevator music / smooth jazz.
Yeah, this article misses the mark.
The author definitely frames the issue of AI-generated music and stock music in Lofi Hip Hop through a Spotify-centric lens.
While they acknowledge that lofi originated and gained popularity outside of Spotify's control, particularly mentioning YouTube channels, it's BS to act like Spotify is the be-all and end-all of this (or any) genre.
Disclosure: I've never paid for a Spotify account.<p>The Truth: Lofi Hip Hop continues to flourish far beyond the profit-prioritized walls of Spotify's garden, a meticulously manicured space where genuine discovery is choked out by the weeds of algorithmic control.
True artistry is blossoming in the wilder, freer spaces online.<p>Also I really recommend Shlohmo & quickly quickly for some fresh Lofi.