ABSTRACT

This chapter discusses the functions and meanings of Spotify, here understood as a streaming service developed in close relation with the music industry, as a commercialized archive giving recommendations of artists, songs, albums, and playlists. Departing from what has been described as digital media’s dominant cultural form – the database – a discussion about how Spotify as a database is turned into an archive by the ways users are guided on the platform based on digital traces is developed. The divergent forms music takes on Spotify are discussed in relation to the platform’s overarching structure – a structure that also constantly is remodeled in regards to how the content is presented to its users. Focusing on how music is contextualized on Spotify, the chapter highlights a tension between earlier forms of music and the re-contextualization of music presented on the platform in albums, playlists, or radio channels, but equally illustrates how Spotify has adopted an idea of music as a soundtrack to daily life, guiding the user towards music discovery for different lifestyles and everyday situations.