Panama Playlists: Website leaks Spotify favorites from celebrities and tech CEOs

What music do US Vice President JD Vance, FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, and OpenAI boss Sam Altman listen to? A website called Panama Playlists, a reference to the Panama Papers, has compiled the Spotify habits of celebrities, journalists, and politicians from the USA. On the one hand, the website offers an entertaining look into the music preferences of the rich and powerful (and journalists), but on the other, it raises questions about data protection at the Swedish music streaming service.

“I found the real Spotify accounts of celebrities, politicians, and journalists,” the website states. “Many are using their real names. With a little detective work, I was able to say with a fair amount of certainty: Yes, that's them. We've been combing through their accounts since summer 2024. Playlists, live listening feeds, everything. I know which songs they've played, when, and how often.”

The people listed were probably not aware that outsiders had access to their private playlists at all. They also do not appear to have consented to publication. It is unclear who is behind the Panama Playlists.

“Best music ever”

Several people whose music preferences were published in the Panama Playlists have confirmed the authenticity of the data. These include tech entrepreneur Palmer Luckey, whose “Best Music Ever” playlist mainly features music from the early 2000s. He writes on X: “I can confirm that this playlist is real.”

The technology magazine The Verge has had the authenticity of the playlists confirmed by other people. The music listed was not always accurate – One journalist wrote that the songs may have been played on a Peloton course. However, several other people contacted by The Verge confirmed the authenticity of the music data.

Playlists public by default

Spotify playlists are shared publicly by default – If you don't want this, you have to switch off sharing manually or make individual playlists private. As soon as the creators of the Panama Playlists had found out a person's Spofity identity, they were able to view and publish the public playlists in many cases. However, this does not explain all the data published on the website. For example, the data of some listed journalists includes the exact number of song playbacks – - data that is not readily accessible.

Spotify has not yet commented on the Panama Playlists.

(dahe)