Playlists have spearheaded the music streaming industry’s rise to becoming the most popular avenue of music consumption. For many, the quality of the generated playlists is the deciding factor in which service to subscribe to and which application to use. For many other listeners, it is actually the only way they listen to music.

This is rather problematic.

To clarify, I do not think playlists are inherently bad, I just believe their unparallelled popularity is giving rise to false precedents. Not only do they encourage a shallow and thoughtless approach to music, their meteoric rise is also starting to affect the way music is being produced.

In many ways, playlists are symptomatic of a modern lifestyle. People have little time and therefore resort to a quick and systematic way of catering to their music needs. Just as we use Amazon to deliver our material goods, we use Spotify to generate fully made, customized playlists. It is up to us to simply press play.

Herein lies the problem. Playlists are designed to assemble the most popular and accessible tracks into a concentrated collection. Songs that can be easily categorized by a mood or feeling are lumped together and served up to the masses. They are pitched to the lowest common denominator since they want to appeal to as many people as possible. However, popularity does not make a track good, neither does the fact that it conforms to a popular trend. Yet, these tracks are the ones getting the recognition, exposure and eventually the most monetary returns.

Thus, it is no surprise that this awareness of playlist culture is seeping into how music is created. More and more singles are being released prior to an album’s official release in an attempt to make it onto one of these playlists. It is not uncommon for an album to have half of the songs already out by its official release. These singles are created with one eye on the aesthetic and mood they are trying to appeal to and it is making music formulaic and sterile.

There is also the very real influence that industry giants and major labels have on streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music. All of these apparently different playlists present an illusion of choice, but in reality the control is in the hands of the biggest players.

The ones getting the brunt of the damage are the experimental and indie outfits who are slowly phased out of the scene. Obviously, these genres have always been more of a niche choice but with so many alternative mainstream options being aggressively pushed on the masses by these platforms, it is getting harder for the small players to get any kind of exposure at all.

Listeners themselves are faced with a different type of problem. Using playlists as the primary medium for music means that the listener is being exposed to tens or even hundreds of different artists and songs daily. The sheer amount of content makes it almost impossible to distinguish between the different things you are listening to. This is not helped by the fact that these tracks are probably assembled because of how similar they are. Therefore, this type of music consumption relies solely on emotion and general moods and it makes listening to music mindless. You cannot establish a meaningful connection with an artist or song because there is no continuity. It is as though you are sampling a variety of dishes but never staying to finish the whole meal.

This is further exacerbated by the rise of background music and so-called chill playlists. Looking at the Spotify front page there is a something and chill playlist for every conceivable moment. These are meant to be played whilst you study or work out and once again cater solely to emotion. This can be referred to as creating an atmosphere or environment with music but it also reduces the content itself to such a primitive level. It is just one step away from becoming background noise.

I honestly recommend asking your friends about who their favorite artist or musician is. I think you will be surprised how many people struggle with this now a days. How can you choose a favorite artist when hundreds flash in front of your screens every day? Playlists keep you sampling a lot and retaining little.

I always think of listening to playlists as quickly making your way through a big art gallery. You see all the big works but after drifting your way through the gallery, you realize that very little was retained. More is not always better and you are missing so much by not focusing on the depth that is in front of you.

Luckily, while Spotify may control the way music reaches us, ultimately the listener still has choice — for now. So, when you hear an artist that you like, give their album a listen and more often than not it will result in a much more fulfilling listening experience.