Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has a playlist called “Repeat,” consisting of the same trance tune 60 times. Sam Bankman-Fried cries to Yellow by Coldplay. And OpenAI CEO Sam Altman boogies to Get Ur Freak On by Missy Elliott.
Well, at least, that’s according to an apparent leak of Spotify celebrity accounts known as the Panama Playlists. The site features several playlists created by tech leaders, politicians, and journalists—though mercifully no one from Decrypt.
“I found the real Spotify accounts of celebrities, politicians, and journalists. Many use their real names. With a little investigating, I could say with near-certainty: yep, this is that person,” the site reads. “I’ve been scraping their playlists for over a year. Some individuals even have a setting enabled that displays their last played song. I scraped this continuously, so I know what songs they played, how many times, and when.”
While we can’t be certain that every single leak is authentic, some of those featured have publicly confirmed that their leaks are true. Such as Oculus VR founder Palmer Luckey, who doubled down on his love for Kelly Clarkson with a tweet referencing her track My Life Would Suck Without You.
Brian Armstrong
Armstrong’s Repeat playlist is one of the weirdest standouts from the crypto names on the list. The CEO also has a “Favs” playlist consisting mostly of numbers from the musical Hamilton, and a morning playlist featuring Whitney Houston and the same trance track from his Repeat playlist.
He responded to the leak exposing his Repeat playlist by tweeting, “It helps me do deep focused work, don’t ask me why.” The most common reply is to point out that there is a repeat button and no need 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 prison in March 2024. That said, the leak of the infamous FTX founder’s Spotify revealed two notable playlists that provided a window into his life before his public downfall.
In the “soft” playlist, Coldplay's classic Yellow is complemented by Hey There Delilah by Plain White T’s, Bad Religion by Frank Ocean, and No Surprises by Radiohead. Other artists on this 56-song playlist include Bon Iver, Blink-182, and The Chainsmokers.
As for the “loud” playlist, it is full of upbeat bangers like Mr. Brightside by The Killers, Stronger by Kanye West, and Not Afraid by Eminem.
Most of these tunes were added in 2016, during his time working at Jane Street Capital. But the last track added to the loud playlist in late 2021 was Save Your Tears by The Weeknd—possibly foreshadowing the tears he wiped away during his sentencing.
Sam Altman
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman appears to be an avid user of Shazam, an app that identifies songs and adds them to a playlist.
Altman’s Shazam playlist features smash hits like Get Ur Freak On by Missy Elliot and Make You Feel My Love by Adele, a handful of classic compositions, and a sprinkling of dance tunes.
Other crypto & AI leaders
In total, the Panama Playlists have leaked 49 accounts of celebrities, politicians, and journalists, including U.S. Vice President JD Vance, Late Night host Seth Meyers, and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.
Marc Andressen from venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz—an early investor in Truth Terminal, which spawned major meme coins Fartcoin and GOAT—is also found on the site. He has a playlist called “Go The Fuck To Sleep,” full of relaxing jazz instrumentals, as well as “Focus Alpha” with a mix of Hans Zimmer and electronic synthwave.
Ilya Sutskever, former OpenAI chief scientist and now CEO of AI firm SSI, appears 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 leading the way. And Nikita Bier, head of product at X and advisor to Solana Labs, had his summer playlist leaked, with songs from house duo Disclosure, jazz-funk icon Roy Ayers, and electronic DJ Jamie XX.
While the Spotify leak is a good bit of fun, we can’t be certain that the details are fully accurate—despite Armstrong and Luckey’s apparent admission to the very specific claims. Decrypt reached out to the site’s creator for more details, but they did not immediately respond.
The site’s name is a homage to the 2016 Panama Papers, which revealed the offshore holdings of more than 100 politicians and public officials.
“The Panama Papers revealed hidden bank accounts. This reveals hidden tastes,” the Panama Playlists site states.
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