In short
- The Panama Playlists seems to have leaked the Spotify accounts of a few of the greatest names in crypto and AI.
- Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has created a playlist with simply the identical trance tune 60 occasions, which he says helps him focus.
- The final tune Sam Bankman-Fried added to a playlist was Save Your Tears by The Weeknd, presumably foreshadowing the tears he wiped away throughout his sentencing.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has a playlist referred to as “Repeat,” consisting of the identical trance tune 60 occasions. Sam Bankman-Fried cries to Yellow by Coldplay. And OpenAI CEO Sam Altman boogies to Get Ur Freak On by Missy Elliott.
Nicely, no less than, that’s in accordance with an obvious leak of Spotify celeb accounts generally known as the Panama Playlists. The location options a number of playlists created by tech leaders, politicians, and journalists—although mercifully nobody from Decrypt.
“I discovered the true Spotify accounts of celebrities, politicians, and journalists. Many use their actual names. With a bit investigating, I may say with near-certainty: yep, that is that particular person,” the location reads. “I’ve been scraping their playlists for over a yr. Some people also have a setting enabled that shows their final performed tune. I scraped this repeatedly, so I do know what songs they performed, what number of occasions, and when.”
Whereas we will’t make sure that each single leak is genuine, a few of these featured have publicly confirmed that their leaks are true. Similar to Oculus VR founder Palmer Luckey, who doubled down on his love for Kelly Clarkson with a tweet referencing her observe My Life Would Suck With out You.
Brian Armstrong
Armstrong’s Repeat playlist is among the weirdest standouts from the crypto names on the checklist. The CEO additionally has a “Favs” playlist consisting principally of numbers from the musical Hamilton, and a morning playlist that includes Whitney Houston and the identical trance observe from his Repeat playlist.
He responded to the leak exposing his Repeat playlist by tweeting, “It helps me do deep targeted work, don’t ask me why.” The commonest reply is to level out that there’s a repeat button and no want for a 60-track playlist.
Sam Bankman-Fried
Bankman-Fried was put into police custody in late 2022 and was sentenced to 25 years in jail in March 2024. That stated, the leak of the notorious FTX founder’s Spotify revealed two notable playlists that offered a window into his life earlier than his public downfall.
Within the “mushy” playlist, Coldplay’s basic Yellow is complemented by Hey There Delilah by Plain White T’s, Unhealthy Faith by Frank Ocean, and No Surprises by Radiohead. Different artists on this 56-song playlist embody Bon Iver, Blink-182, and The Chainsmokers.
As for the “loud” playlist, it is filled with upbeat bangers like Mr. Brightside by The Killers, Stronger by Kanye West, and Not Afraid by Eminem.
Most of those tunes have been added in 2016, throughout his time working at Jane Road Capital. However the final observe added to the loud playlist in late 2021 was Save Your Tears by The Weeknd—presumably foreshadowing the tears he wiped away throughout his sentencing.
Sam Altman
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman seems to be an avid consumer of Shazam, an app that identifies songs and provides them to a playlist.
Altman’s Shazam playlist options smash hits like Get Ur Freak On by Missy Elliot and Make You Really feel My Love by Adele, a handful of basic compositions, and a sprinkling of dance tunes.
Different crypto & AI leaders
In complete, the Panama Playlists have leaked 49 accounts of celebrities, politicians, and journalists, together with U.S. Vice President JD Vance, Late Night time host Seth Meyers, and White Home Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.
Marc Andressen from enterprise capital agency Andreessen Horowitz—an early investor in Fact Terminal, which spawned main meme cash Fartcoin and GOAT—can be discovered on the location. He has a playlist referred to as “Go The Fuck To Sleep,” filled with stress-free jazz instrumentals, in addition to “Focus Alpha” with a mixture of Hans Zimmer and digital synthwave.
Ilya Sutskever, former OpenAI chief scientist and now CEO of AI agency SSI, seems to be a fan of Eminem, Metallica, and TOOL. Meta chief AI scientist Yann LeCun loves jazz, with a playlist of bossa nova legend Antonio Carlos Jobim and American jazz artist Wayne Shorter.
Garry Tan, CEO of tech startup accelerator Y Combinator and supporter of the MOG meme coin, had his most-played songs leaked, with Witches by Alice Phoebe Lou main the best way. And Nikita Bier, head of product at X and advisor to Solana Labs, had his summer season playlist leaked, with songs from home duo Disclosure, jazz-funk icon Roy Ayers, and digital DJ Jamie XX.
Whereas the Spotify leak is an effective little bit of enjoyable, we will’t make sure that the main points are absolutely correct—regardless of Armstrong and Luckey’s obvious admission to the very particular claims. Decrypt reached out to the location’s creator for extra particulars, however they didn’t instantly reply.
The location’s identify is a homage to the 2016 Panama Papers, which revealed the offshore holdings of greater than 100 politicians and public officers.
“The Panama Papers revealed hidden financial institution accounts. This reveals hidden tastes,” the Panama Playlists website states.
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