Spotify—Exposed for 'Perfect Fit Content' program using ghost artists to reduce royalty payments
Harper's Magazine investigation by Liz Pelly revealed Spotify's internal 'Perfect Fit Content' program since 2017, where ~20 songwriters behind 500+ fake 'artists' were seeded onto playlists to reduce royalty costs. Musicians paid one-time fees (~$1,700/track) while signing away rights. Internal Slack messages showed teams tracking PFC growth. Playlists like 'Deep Focus' and 'Ambient Relaxation' were almost entirely PFC. Editors who resisted were replaced.
Scoring Impact
| Topic | Direction | Relevance | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Worker Rights | -against | primary | -1.00 |
| Overall incident score = | -0.885 | ||
Score = avg(topic contributions) × significance (high ×1.5) × confidence (0.59)
Evidence (1 signal)
Exposed for 'Perfect Fit Content' program using ghost artists to reduce royalty payments
Harper's Magazine investigation by Liz Pelly revealed Spotify's internal 'Perfect Fit Content' program since 2017, where ~20 songwriters behind 500+ fake 'artists' were seeded onto playlists to reduce royalty costs. Musicians paid one-time fees (~$1,700/track) while signing away rights. Internal Slack messages showed teams tracking PFC growth. Playlists like 'Deep Focus' and 'Ambient Relaxation' were almost entirely PFC. Editors who resisted were replaced.