The Playlist Economy: How Music Discovery Became Its Own Industry

Music promotion can feel nebulous and inaccessible, especially for independent artists. Everything feels like it’s controlled by a black box we will never truly have the opportunity to look inside. While some take the approach of posting to TikTok constantly, hoping their music gets picked up by the next viral trend, there’s an alternative: marketed playlists.

Playlists aren’t just personal curation anymore – they’re a key part of the music industry’s infrastructure. 

Attention is now a commodity, and playlists are key tools for artists, labels, and radio stations to capture and maintain listeners. Curating playlists helps build a loyal fanbase that returns regularly, and labels use them constantly to showcase new music. Streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music, and beyond generate playlists on a per-user, per-genre basis, which have entirely changed the way music is distributed.

From mixtapes to algorithms

Before streaming, music was shared through mixtapes and personally crafted playlists. Streaming services have changed the dynamics of discovery in the music industry; exposure and placement are more important than ever before in such a flooded space. Discovering music is still personal, but it’s no longer as physical as it used to be – buying CDs and digging through local record store bins are saved for those truly committed to physical media. iTunes and the explosion of streaming made everything convenient, and this convenience created a complex cultural and economic shift towards focused curation as the primary mode of consumption.

In a democratized industry, independent artists have access to similar tools as the artists on the top of the charts.

The playlist economy

Today, playlists act as the connective tissue between artists and audiences. They drive streams, which drive revenue and artist visibility. A well-placed song can elevate it well past a built-in audience of fans. This power has given rise to the playlist economy, an informal but thriving network of publicists, curators, and data tools working together to help artists get heard. Getting featured on the right playlist isn’t luck, these days – it’s strategy and business.

For independent artists, this shift can be both liberating and daunting. Playlists offer a path to visibility without the need for a label or a traditional marketing budget, but at the same time, the space has become increasingly competitive and opaque. For those who learn to work within it, the playlist economy becomes an equalizer, allowing bedroom producers to reach millions of listeners.

 The rise of independent and DIY musicians has fueled a growing demand for accessible tools that empower artists to take control of their own promotion. Ryan Abraham, Director Project Manager at PlaylistSupply, has experienced the shift from traditional music promotion methods to data driven and targeted approach. PlaylistSupply helps industry members track valuable data in real time and all in one place, mirroring the ever-changing dynamic of the music industry. “This centralized approach empowers artists to bypass gatekeepers and target the right high quality playlists, often leading to faster, more measurable success with direct audience engagement, without the need for massive budgets or traditional promotional hurdles,” he wrote.

Spotify has taken an interesting angle on this business by honing in on what listeners love: oddly-specific and personalized playlists that speak to every mood, vibe, or interpretation of a cultural moment. The music industry has become less about fitting into genres or pre-existing boxes and instead about creating micro-worlds for listeners to live in and create as they please. Abraham’s goal for PlaylistSupply was to provide advanced playlist search and vetting features to sort by genre, mood, activity, or even similar artists to make it easier to target playlists with a similar sound. “This type of music industry data has often been available to major labels for a long time. Our goal was to democratize the data so that any indie artist can have the same marketing potential,” Abraham wrote.

From inside jokes to references to hyper-specific feelings or locations, playlists evoke a sense of an imagined community between their listeners. Playlists have become a new language for identity and emotion. Titles like “walks on a rainy day” or “running late but feeling cinematic” tell small, personal stories. In this way, curation itself has become a creative act, shaping how we express ourselves and how we experience music collectively. The line between listener and curator, consumer and creator, continues to blur.

What’s next?

As AI-driven tools emerge to help artists connect directly with curators, the playlist economy will continue to evolve. Questions of transparency and accessibility will define its next phase: Who gets to decide what’s heard, and on what terms?