Playlists as
Ecosystems

An empirical test of Hubbell's neutral biodiversity theory and species-area relationships, applied to 20,000 Spotify playlists containing 1.3M track placements. Tracks are species, playlists are habitats, and the species-abundance distribution tests ±100σ from neutral theory's prediction.

MPD Ecology — Playlists as Ecosystems — An empirical test of Hubbell's neutral biodiversity theory and species-area relationships, applied to the Spotify Million Playlist Dataset. 20K playlists as habitats, 260K tracks as species. Founded 2026-07-07.