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556 points greenie_beans | 3 comments | | HN request time: 0.734s | source
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legitster ◴[] No.42466978[source]
This article is fascinating. But what's on display here is less of a nefarious plan from Spotify to replace famous Katy Perry with AI - instead we get to see something much more specific: a behind-the-scenes of how those endless chill/lo-fi/ambient playlists get created.

Which is something I've always wondered! How does the Lofi Girl channel on Youtube always have so much new music from artists I have never heard from?

The answer is surprising: real people and real instruments! (At least at the time of writing). Third-party stock music ("muzak") companies hiring underemployed jazz musicians to crank out a few dozen derivative songs every day to hack the algorithm.

> “Honestly, for most of this stuff, I just write out charts while lying on my back on the couch,” he explained. “And then once we have a critical mass, they organize a session and we play them. And it’s usually just like, one take, one take, one take, one take. You knock out like fifteen in an hour or two.” With the jazz musician’s particular group, the session typically includes a pianist, a bassist, and a drummer. An engineer from the studio will be there, and usually someone from the PFC partner company will come along, too—acting as a producer, giving light feedback, at times inching the musicians in a more playlist-friendly direction.”

I think there's an easy and obvious thing we can do - stop listening to playlists! Seek out named jazz artists. Listen to your local jazz station. Go to jazz shows.

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1. eleveriven ◴[] No.42469019[source]
It’s ironic, though, that what we love about playlists like Lofi Girl (endless streams of music that feel fresh yet familiar) is exactly what’s being exploited
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2. fuhsnn ◴[] No.42469491[source]
>feel fresh yet familiar

This probably applies to most mainstream entertainment.

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3. Cthulhu_ ◴[] No.42470255[source]
In this particular context, it's for passive entertainment; things like blockbuster movies are intended for actively watching.

But that said, people massively underestimate the background entertainment market. Spotify Reddit is that for me a lot of the time, as is youtube. Netflix and co less so, if I'm watching something I want to enjoy it, not have it as background / comofort stuff.