alt text
The simple answers to the questions that get asked about every new technology:
Will [blank] make us all geniuses? No
Will [blank] make us all morons? No
Will [blank] destroy whole industries? Yes
Will [blank] make us more empathetic? No
Will [blank] make us less caring? No
Will teens use [blank] for sex? Yes
Were they going to have sex anyway? Yes
Will [blank] destroy music? No
Will [blank] destroy art? No
But can’t we go back to a time when- No
Will [blank] bring about world peace? No
Will [blank] cause widespread alienation by creating a world of empty experiences? We were already alienated


But now Spotify and co have a financial incentive to generate as much slop as possible and to push it to their users aggressively. Why? Well cause if their users only listen to slop, they won’t have to pay any actual artists anymore. So you know it’s guaranteed to happen. This is capitalism after all.
That will mean people make music for the love of the craft again, music has sucked because of commercial incentive, maybe this will revive the craft.
I have noticed a profound lack of political commentary in music nowadays. There are a few fringe artists but that is about it.
Spotify makes more money from artists trying to promote their work than they do from people paying to stream music.