Spotify uses ghost artists to "shape listening behavior" and avoid paying real ones

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Spotify pads playlists with music by unknown artists, and has been accused of generating this music itself or using cheap library music to reduce the amount paid to artists. At Harpers, Liz Pelly, building on reporting by Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter, reveals that the practice is pervasive. Spotify's plan for us is to deprecate well…