How Spotify is perfecting the art of the playlist

Until recently, Mike Perry assembled engines at a Volvo plant in Skovde, a medieval city in Sweden. But Perry wanted to be a famous DJ. At night he labored in a recording studio, writing and producing songs in a lush, throbbing style known as tropical house. It sounds like Jimmy Cliff was tweaked by Avicii, the electronic dance musician.

Perry was 30 and hadn’t had a breakthrough, so it looked as if he’d be on the assembly line for years. Then, in April, he released a track called The Ocean, a bit of escapist pop. It wasn’t long before he noticed the Spotify link to his song all over social media. The Ocean became so popular on the streaming service that Perry quit his job and spent the summer performing in Europe. Now he has almost 15.5 million monthly Spotify listeners, a number he still finds inconceivable. “It’s just opened so many doors,” he says. Read more...