“Currently Listening to …”: Curating Artist Playlists and Authenticity on Spotify

This article examines music curation and authenticity through Artist Playlists on Spotify. It charts the ways that English-speaking popular music artists based in Europe and the United States curate music through three types of Artist Playlists—Catalog Artist Playlists (CAPs), Catalog Plus Artist Playlists (CPAPs), and Non-Catalog Artist Playlists (NCAPs)—before considering how the labor and knowledge on show in this curation shapes spaces on Spotify in which to consider and assess the artists’ authenticity of expression, experience, and execution.