Spotify structures musical identity through infrastructure.
Each artist has a catalogue. Each track accumulates signals through listening, sharing, and recommendation.
In theory, popularity reflects listener choice over time.
In practice, infrastructure influences which signals accumulate.
Pavement released the song “Harness Your Hopes” in 1999 as a B-side. It was obscure and largely forgotten.
Around 2017, the track began appearing repeatedly in Spotify’s autoplay recommendations.
Listeners encountered the song not through historical context, but through algorithmic exposure.
Over time, it became Pavement’s most-streamed track, with more than 200 million plays.
This was not the result of historical importance or deliberate promotion.
It was the result of infrastructure.
The algorithm amplified one signal disproportionately, reshaping the perceived identity of the artist.
Infrastructure does not only preserve identity.
It can reshape it.