Can the unions win? w/ Polly Smythe

In 2006, the music streaming service Spotify, founded by Swedish entrepreneurs Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon was launched in the context of widespread music piracy, file sharing, and declining profits for the music majors. Presenting themselves as music fans who were intent on saving the music industry, Spotify has since gone on to become the dominant music streaming platform, far eclipsing any of its rivals, and making Ek and Lorentzon billionaires. While once lauded by the media, Spotify's reputation has significantly declined as understanding of how little most musicians receive from streaming has become more widespread and as Spotify has courted controversy by populating some of its playlists with so-called "perfect fit content" - stock music produced for Spotify in order to reduce the amount of royalties the company pays to rights holders. Journalist Liz Pelly has done more than most to bring to light practices such as these and to challenge the myth-making of Spotify's founders. In today's episode we spoke about the early years of Spotify, as it emerged in the context of mass file sharing and as the major music labels were coming to see Sweden as a lost market - making it ripe as a site for experimentation with streaming. We went on to talk about how Spotify is shaping the user habits of listeners and about the damaging consequences of the datafication of music. Finally, we chatted about some of the inspiring efforts to challenge the dominance of Spotify that have emerged in recent years, as both musicians and listeners seek to find ways to create music communities and to preserve and curate music history - practices that Spotify's dominance has severely eroded.

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PTO has now been going for more than seven years and some of the earlier episodes unfortunately have truly abysmal audio quality - because of the podcasting technology of the time. But, thanks to the wonders of audio editing software in 2025, it's been possible to quite significantly improve the sound quality of those episodes, and so in the coming months there will be a few interviews from the archives appearing in your feed.  In the following interview - recorded six years ago - Alexander Gallas talks about the extent of popular support for the Thatcherite project and about the debates of the 1980s between Stuart Hall and Bob Jessop regarding how to characterise Thatcherite hegemony. Alexander is the author of 'The Thatcherite Offensive: A Neo-Poulantzasian Analysis'.

Sofia Menemenlis joins PTO to chat about her recent article in The Breakdown on the concept and history of solar geoengineering - or “solar radiation management" as it has become known. We talked about how the implementation of SRM is imagined, what the potentially catastrophic side effects of such a project might be, and who the key players are in terms of research and potential deployment of the technology.

Sebastian Budgen returns to provide an update on the political situation in France. If you'd like to hear the rest of this episode of PTO Extra! please consider becoming a £5 supporter at patreon.com/poltheoryother

In December of last year, the then South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol - of the right-wing People Power Party - attempted to impose martial law on the country in what was described as a 'self-coup'. Kevin Gray joins PTO to talk about his recent article in the New Left Review on the Korean far-right. We chatted about the background to the attempted coup and the history of the Korean far-right and broader conservative currents. Kevin explained the far-right's roots in the Japanese occupation of Korea and the role of the United States in supporting those conservative elements that collaborated in Japanese rule. We also talked about how the far-right has developed a capacity for large-scale, militant street protest and why it is that young Korean men are increasingly supportive of the far-right.

Phil Burton-Cartledge returns to PTO to talk about the ongoing crisis of the British Conservative Party and whether there is a way back for the party that has dominated British politics for two centuries. We talked about whether the failings of Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch are particular to her, or merely a reflection of deeper lying structural problems, and we discussed why it is that Nigel Farage's Reform Party has proven more successful in occupying the populist-right space in UK politics.

Sebastian Budgen returns to PTO to talk about the political crisis in France where Emmanuel Macron has appointed his third prime minister in a year. We talked about the political background of the new prime minister, and long-time Macron ally, Sebastien Lecornu and whether the French Socialist Party is likely to prop up the new government. We also talked about the 'Block Everything' protest movement and how the radical left have handled the campaign of demonisation they have been subjected to by the French media. Finally, we talked about the legal troubles of Marine Le Pen and the electoral prospects for the far-right National Rally.

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Juliet Jacques interviews James Schneider (co-founder of Momentum and director of strategic communications during Jeremy Corbyn's time as Labour leader) about the creation of the new left party in Britain, why there's a greater opportunity for a left electoral breakthrough now than there has been in living memory, and about the need to rebuild the left's social institutions.