Atlantic (not so) Chill

What kind of music makes it to the top 5 of one of Spotify’s biggest playlists? Well, one would figure quality music from seasoned veterans that have take years to hone their craft and are in their zone.

And a lot of times that is true.

But in some cases, some tracks make it to the top 5 of those lists from their very first track.

Yes, it is absolutely possible to go from zero monthly listeners to over half a million and over a million streams in a short span of a month. 

If you are Atlantic Records and their in-house production team.

Atlantic Chill seemingly began life as a major-label in road into the “Lofi Beats” scene (don’t get me started on this moniker but whatever…). They were working with and recruiting established artists within the scene to put out quality work. 

It didn’t exactly become the new Lo-Fi Girl, but they put out some decent releases. But in that section of the instrumental music sphere, you are either Lo-Fi Girl or nothing, it seems.

So Atlantic apparently changed plans. 

Atlantic Chill has released a small handful of tracks this year and of those, one of them – “Playdoh” by “Milo3” – made the top 5 of the highly trafficked “Lo-Fi Beats” playlist. It is now currently at number 8 on the list with just north of a million streams in a month’s time. 

Yes, it’s been at the top of that playlist for a month…

Great for the artist “Milo3” right? Sure – except that this artist doesn’t exist – not as an artist.

Nor does “WILLOW”, “Heartbreak”, “Cloe”, “Ginger”, or “Pixie” – or any of Atlantic Chill’s released artists this year – all of which have the same songwriters credited with their one song, and all of which are copyrighted by Warner Chappell Production Music.

I understand the nepotism of Atlantic Chill’s ghost artist making the top of Lo-Fi Beats and staying there (Atlantic Chill is a cash grab, after all, let’s be honest) – this blog isn’t really about that. 

The thing bugging me about this scenario is what is the benefit to Atlantic Chill/Warner Chappell of setting up these ghost profiles? If the song writer is being credited for each song, why bother creating all of the different names? Why not just pick one and release all of Lukas Roher (or whoever)’s work under that one name?

And furthermore, why do the names of the artists seem to correspond to the animated character on the cover? Calling your artist “Ginger” and having an animated redhead with long hair as your album art when the music is performed by Lukas Roher while “Milo3” has an animated person with a black masculine haircut on the cover and the music is also performed by Lukas Roher feels like they are trying to exploit people’s perceptions. 

Then again, having been on Lofi Beats previously, I can tell you that most of it’s listeners don’t really give a shit about who they are listening to. 

But again, the question is – what is the purpose of the multiple profiles from the same person in the same genre? And for that matter, why are non-major label connected artists doing this as well? I’ve noticed at least one person setting up multiple aliases, calling attention to the fact that it is them, and then “collabing” with themselves. 

Basically Milo3 saying “Hey my next beat is dropping this Tuesday – it’s featuring my favorite collaborator Ginger” = Hey my new track is featuring me.  

What kind of tax evasion bullshit is this lol?