Spotify has been accused of filling its own playlists with music from pseudonymous "ghost artists" — tracks commissioned at lower royalty rates — to reduce the royalties it pays out on popular ambient and focus playlists.

Controversy emerged in 2016–2017. In December 2024, journalist Liz Pelly published "The Ghosts in the Machine" in Harper's Magazine, revealing an internal "Perfect Fit Content" program introduced to editors in 2017 as a profitability initiative, involving partners like Epidemic Sound and Firefly Entertainment. By 2023, "several hundred playlists" were monitored by the PFC team. Spotify has not publicly acknowledged the program by name. Distinct from — but conceptually linked to — the broader AI-generated music spam problem.