Before I delve into the specifics, the answer is yes. Yes, playlists on streaming services and social media have made the music industry impossibly dull.
First and foremost, artists have lost their mystique thanks to social media. Social media has put modern musicians in an interesting quagmire. On the one hand, platforms like Tik Tok and Instagram are two of the most incredible marketing and promotional tools ever created, allowing artists to reach infinitely more fans than ever while retaining the illusion of intimacy. However, is it possible that even the illusion of intimacy is too much?
Social media either gives artists just enough rope to hang themselves by giving them an outlet to expose their(insert stupidity, bigotry, pettiness, history of abuse, etc. here) or by making them too accessible. Artists in older eras used to let their work speak for itself; in modernity, social media is the work, and the music only exists as a means to prop up their celebrity. The success of artists like Kendrick Lamar, who goes out of his way to avoid pointless interviews and social media, shows that the adage "less is more" still holds up.
And then, there's the playlist problem, which is another beast entirely. In the video linked above, the YouTuber Venus Theory explains why "playlistifcation" has ruined modern music.
