The Eternal Playlist 🌠

Lessons from Spotify on the fluidity of memory

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My Spotify account is nearly 10 years old.

I find Spotify endlessly frustrating as a platform. From its labyrinthine playlist interface to its broken shuffle mechanism to its refusal to pay artists appropriately, there is much to resent about the audio behemoth.

But it is also undeniable that Spotify and the music streaming era it helped bring about have allowed myself and millions of others to discover countless songs and artists we never would have found otherwise. My Liked Songs library will soon surpass 4,000 saved tracks, and thanks to Spotify’s discovery features my personal catalog is made up of songs of all popularity levels, from those famous the world over like Bad Bunny’s “Me Porto Bonito,” to “500 Miles” by Canadian rapper YYZ, a song included on my Discover Weekly seven years a…