“Solving problems no one has in order to impress investors since 2008!”

real question who is actually going to do this

I have questions. Firstly, what cut is Spotify keeping when someone buys a book through bookshop.org via its platform? The announcement says this "will directly support bookshops & the authors" but noticeably not that they will pass on 100% from purchases newsroom.spotify.com/2026-02-05/b...

Finally digging into @lizpelly.bsky.social and @peretsky.bsky.social excellent @criticallistening.bsky.social podcast! Really helpful to learn more about @umaw.bsky.social. I already liked them, but hearing from leadership makes me like them even more. criticallistening.podbean.com/e/episode-2-...

WE’RE BACK. Today we start the year with a dispatch from what some may call the front lines: a bunch of AI-related panels at a European music biz trade conference. It’s also our first episode recorded in person! Listen at patreon.com/criticallistening

personally i was only tuned into the Grammys for the Noah kahan x mastercard drop

next neoluddite read is Mood Machine by @lizpelly.bsky.social! join us at iffy books on Thursday, Feb. 12th to discuss

Corporate America made over $22 billion from contracts with ICE and CBP last year. The list of companies profiting from Trump's aggressive deportation regime includes Palantir, Deloitte, GEO Group, and many more. www.ft.com/content/c741...

"there's a new world coming" > "save the children" > "the west" > "my pal foot foot" > "it isn't nice" www.thelotradio.com/shows/crypto...

I wrote about my childhood friend Alexi Pretti. Please read it and share it and remember him as a human being. @theverge.com

what's going on at critical listening this month www.patreon.com/posts/januar...

is "meaningful control of the algorithm" in the room with us right now

www.dontrocktheinbox.com -woman owned mom owned worker owned writing about whatever we feel "country music" means that day bsky.app/profile/lizp...

I think it would be really helpful if everyone posting their very cool takes on the state of music journalism this week would also encourage people to subscribe to worker-owned outlets & support independent writers trying to make new things happen

8 hours to do what you will 📣📣📣

new kag singles on loop katiealicegreer.bandcamp.com/track/expo-70 katiealicegreer.bandcamp.com/track/talk-t...

"There have been times where people are like, 'I read your book and then I canceled Spotify and I got Apple Music!' That kind of misses a lot of the point that this book lands on." – 𝘔𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘔𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘦 author Liz Pelly

heading to the Netherlands tomorrow where @peretsky.bsky.social and I will be hosting @criticallistening.bsky.social live at a music industry event but more importantly we will be learning about how AI-powered workflows can unlock new value chains and empower artist-preneurs to attract investments

If you live in Bedstuy or Crown Heights you have a chance to help elect @eonforassembly.bsky.social to the State Assembly this year📣The campaign has a fundraising deadline tonight at midnight if you have the means to send them a few bucks @socialists.nyc eonforassembly.com/donate

speaking w/ joey and Luke Stewart today at Lincoln center and you can bet we will also talk about how utterly depraved it is that Spotify has defended running ICE ads.

I'm a union organizer, Assemblymember, and democratic socialist running for Congress in NY-07. I came to politics through low-wage jobs and the labor movement. That’s the perspective I’ll bring to Washington to take on oligarchy, fascism, and war—and win for working people.

January 7 huh .. that means mood machine has been out in the world for a year. thanks for reading (this book and in general)

The New York-based DIY show listings zine GUNK published this list of local small-scale music venues that closed in 2025. It is so hard to keep a community-oriented music space open in this city. I really hope whoever leads Cultural Affairs for @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social will take this seriously.

More people are questioning the effect of digital tech, AI, and even streaming on culture — and some are even going back to analog! In light of that, this week we’re replaying a great interview with @lizpelly.bsky.social about music, streaming, and Spotify. Full ep: techwontsave.us/episode/309_...

"[I]nclude funding for the City's public library systems designated for the creation of local music streaming services." "Library streaming offers an alternative vision: publicly funded digital archives for local music that are ad-free, accessible, & stewarded responsibly." — @lizpelly.bsky.social

Wildly different things, tasks, techniques, subspecialties being lumped into "AI" and then being conflated with each other, doesn't help. Different types of models vs the techniques to train them vs the tasks they are supposed to accomplish, all under "AI".

some topics we asked Anthony about on this ep include: - changing public perceptions of streaming in 2025 - on-screen music critics who get paid by labels & don’t disclose - if people who make video and audio material should be doing more to encourage people to read! subscribe to hear it all now

The season 1 finale of Critical Listening is now live for patrons and with us to send off the year we have none other than the internet’s busiest music nerd himself: Anthony Fantano. Subscribe and hear in full at patreon.com/criticallistening, see you in 2026!

grateful to everyone who put mood machine on a year-end books list but especially grateful to be on the Brooklyn Public Library's list! some of the most memorable times spent working on this book were at my local BPL branch discover.bklynlibrary.org?booklist=751...

ha ha ha ... pitchfork.com/features/lis...

thrilled to announce see/saw's top 54 punk + rock'n'roll records of 2025: a physical newsprint broadsheet. not publishing online! just got these on the doorstep today and I couldn't be happier with how they turned out. order a copy! happy holidays!

I miss your average altweekly's regional albums of the year list. Please send any you see my way.

a fav 2025 record you may have missed iykyk avaluna.bandcamp.com/album/ava-luna

On the new Techtonic I speak w/Noah McCormack from @thebaffler.com about his essay "We used to read things in this country." In the clip below Noah reveals one possible outcome of the AI bubble. Full episode: techtonic.fm/episodes/202...

one of my fav albums of the year. radical songs inspired by history, literature, imagining a less alienated world & woody. not ragebait memery haleyheynderickx.bandcamp.com/album/what-o...

grateful to grayson for loading the chamber on a topic i have not had the patience to write about myself currincy.substack.com/p/i-protest-...

Episode 9 LIVE at Purchase College is available now for all patrons and will be available on all major platforms besides the Swedish app next week alongside some Patreon-exclusive bonus content! www.patreon.com/posts/145104...

The 10 Best Albums of 2025 by @jennpelly.bsky.social time.com/7333797/best...

Jo justja jag var med i boken Mood machine av @lizpelly.bsky.social också. Kapitlet blev omslagsstory i Harper’s magazine. harpers.org/archive/2025... (bla bla bla sluta sluta Linus din tönt)

Min Spotify Wrapped är mest att jag figurerar i, samt bidragit med viss bakgrund till, en kritisk bok om Spotify. "Mood Machine" av @lizpelly.bsky.social fick ett välförtjänt genomslag som går bortom vad som fångas i plattformarnas årsstatistik. Boken kommer att förbli en viktig referenspunkt.

The 10 Best Albums of 2025 by @jennpelly.bsky.social time.com/7333797/best...

"Spotify Wrapped [is] another example of something personal and precious that is being automated away from us; a supposedly unbearable task of thinking and writing being “offloaded” in order to make life more frictionless." @lizpelly.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/music/2025/d...

I wrote about listening, thinking, reflection, memory & not “offloading” it all to sp*tify! www.theguardian.com/music/2025/d...

thanks to @nplusonemag.com and @robarcand.bsky.social for this excellent essay on my book, as well as Mood Machine by @lizpelly.bsky.social, a book I absolutely love

No contract, no coffee. We don’t believe in sitting on the sidelines. Join our Transition co-chair @linamkhan.bsky.social , First Deputy Mayor Dean Fuleihan & @sbworkersunited.org at the picket lines.

ep 8 of @criticallistening.bsky.social w/ amirtha kidambi is live now wherever you get your podcasts except sp*tify listen below and if you like the show maybe hit the 5 stars or text it to your group chat or something tysm podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/c...

*boosting for the weekend crowd*

yesterday @lizpelly.bsky.social joined us to kick off @newfeelingcoop.bsky.social's AGM and it was such an honour. i remember the excitement and validation everyone felt to see our co-op's name in the pages of Mood Machine when it came out, and last night's chat was equally affirming.