Hyperpop was a web scene—it’s not like there was no digital or data footprint for these artists—but for Spotify, it wasn’t considered real enough until the data was on Spotify. It’s an equation that brings to mind what the author and academic researcher Maria Eriksson wrote in a 2016 paper on the Echo Nest, building on the work of Geoffrey C. Bowker: “We seem to be entering a point in time in which you do not exist unless you are data.”
