In 2018, I want to find new music without using algorithms

In the December issue of The Baffler, journalist Liz Pelly wrote a fascinating, widely discussed dissection of how the algorithms employed by major streaming services — particularly Spotify — are changing music.They’re making it less interesting, less diverse, and more corporate, she argued — more like Muzak, something that seems like music, but is really just background noise made from stock sounds. She called out Spotify’s focus on mood-themed playlists, which ar