The hidden money financing your favorite songs

There are influencers taking money to promote music – and not telling you about it.

It’s great when you find people who put you on to hot new music that matches your taste. But online tastemakers might be getting secretly paid to shill for labels. This is not a conspiracy theory – it’s a real practice. NPR music reporter Isabella Gomez Sarmiento spoke to several online content creators who told her about how labels approached them – and who they’re being asked to promote. By the way – this is potentially illegal. But what does it mean for regular music enjoyers that music discovery is so weighed down by dollars? And can we ever disentangle money from the Internet – and from culture?

Brittany is joined by Isabella to get into the juicy details and the broader implications of this practice.

(00:00) Whose music recommendations do you trust?
(02:21) The influencers secretly paid to boost musicians
(04:31) The tea on which artists are getting promoted
(05:43) Is this secret money ethical – and legal?
(12:39) Why music fans are so wary of “industry plants”
(15:51) Do musicians need these secret campaigns to be successful?
(18:12) Is the internet kind of dead?

For more episodes on the state of music in culture, check out:
The shelf life of a pop star
The D-List pop star purgatory
Can TikTok spark a new era of protests?

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