The Playlist Professionals At Apple, Spotify, And Google

When he's choosing your music for you, Carl Chery, 37, is in Culver City, California, sitting at his desk in an office with no signage, trying to decide whether Drake and Future's "Jumpman" (jumpman, jumpman, jumpman) has jumped the shark. Or at the gym going for a morning run on the treadmill, thinking about your gym and your treadmill, listening through headphones for changes in tempo and tone: Will this song push you through the pain? Is that one too long on the buildup? "It's hard to describe because it's more of a feeling or instinct," says Chery of his process. He's from Queens, New York, which, despite his residence in Los Angeles for the past four years, is obvious when you hear him talk. "It kind of just happens. You sit there and you start moving and just do it." For a while we thought we could choose our own music. In the wake of the last century we seized the right to take our pick from all of the songs in the world (All of the songs in the world!) and told anyone who didn't like it exactly where they could go.