This is one of the more depressing HN comments I have read in awhile. It's amazing to me that this can be one's take after reading this absolutely damning article. Just the market working, I suppose.
HN has a super bland and anti-culture culture. Combine that with the tendency to love technology and watching the free market "solve" "problems" and you're bound to find prolific posters like the parent commenter with these cold takes.
The article is deliberately written to try to evoke an outrage, but I also don't see what is actually damning about it. The comparison with store brands is the first thing that came to my mind.
Its the deception. They dont call it "Spotify Easy Listening" and have a store brand the consumer can easily identify, the same song has 50 names and 50 artists, and its in Spotify's financial interest to keep doing that.
This deception in labeling and artist-anonymizing and hiding the existence of this PFC program is the antithesis of fulfilling their core value propositions, foremost to the consumer which is exposing them to music they do or would like and secondarily to the artist community they claim to support.
More enshittification on the altar of selfish growth.
