Liz Pelly is a writer and editor based in New York. She covers music, culture, media, streaming and the internet. She is a Contributing Editor at The Baffler and the Pioneer Works Broadcast. She currently teaches music writing in the recorded music program at NYU Tisch, and co-authors the music newsletter Cryptophasia.
Select writing on the music streaming economy, 2017-present
- The Problem with Muzak: Spotify's bid to remodel an industry, The Baffler, 2017
- The Secret Lives of Playlist, Watt, 2017
- Discover Weakly: Sexism on Spotify, The Baffler, 2018
- Unfree Agents: Spotify's Uber-like model for independent artists, The Baffler, 2018
- Streambait Pop: The emergence of a total Spotify genre, The Baffler, 2018
- Big Mood Machine: Spotify pursues emotional surveillance for global profit, The Baffler, 2019
- Podcast Overlords: Spotify only works for the stars, The Baffler, 2020
- #Wrapped and Sold: On Spotify's year-end campaign, The Baffler, 2020 Invisible costs: Digital music takes an unprecedented environmental toll, No Depression, 2020
- Socialized Streaming: A case for universal music access, Real Life, 2021
- Library Music: Public libraries offer small-scale streaming alternatives for local archiving, The Broadcast, 2021
Other favorites
- Cut the Music: Inside M.A.R.C.H. - the NYPD's secret, venue-closing task force, The Baffler
- Sofar, So Bad: A global startup aims to exploit underground music, The Baffler
- With gigs canceled and no relief, musicians form a nationwide union, In These Times