Streaming platforms do not only distribute identity. They can create it.
Spotify playlists such as Peaceful Piano, Deep Focus, and Ambient Relaxation include thousands of tracks attributed to artists with no visible external presence.
Artists such as Amity Cadet, Deep Watch, and Sleepdealer accumulated millions of streams.
Outside Spotify, these artists did not exist.
They had no live performances. No interviews. No social presence. No independent discography.
Their identity existed only within Spotify’s infrastructure.
Listeners encountered these artists through playlists, not through historical discovery or cultural context.
The playlist created the signal.
The signal created the artist.
Infrastructure did not merely preserve identity. It generated it.
Without the platform, the artist did not exist.
The artist Amity Cadet accumulated millions of streams through Spotify editorial playlists, while having no independent presence outside the platform.
The identity persisted because the infrastructure persisted.
Source Music Business Worldwide — Spotify denies playlisting fake artists