Is your personalised playlist for sale?
A new class-action lawsuit is turning up the volume on Spotify, accusing the streaming giant of a “modern form of payola.”
The legal filing alleges the platform secretly sells visibility within its user-customised ‘Discovery Mode’ playlists through undisclosed deals with record labels, fundamentally betraying subscriber trust.
The lawsuit claims Spotify “charges listeners for the privilege of being deceived,” creating a false impression of organic, personalised recommendations when financial incentives are quietly manipulating the algorithm.
One plaintiff expressed frustration at being unable to discern which suggestions were genuine and which were paid promotions.
In a fiery response, Spotify dismissed the suit as “nonsense,” asserting that Discovery Mode is a clearly disclosed tool for artists to flag tracks for algorithmic consideration and does not affect editorial playlists.
This legal strike adds to Spotify’s challenges, arriving just days after a separate lawsuit accused the company of ignoring “mass-scale fraudulent streaming” on its service.
