The Ghosts in the Machine, by Liz Pelly:
"Such artists often had millions of streams on Spotify and pride of place on the company’s own mood-themed playlists, which were compiled by a team of in-house curators. And they often had Spotify’s verified-artist badge. But they were clearly fake. Their “labels” were frequently listed as stock-music companies like Epidemic, and their profiles included generic, possibly ... https://micro.fromjason.xyz/2024/12/25/the-ghosts-in-the-machine.html