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The day I canceled my Spotify subscription

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Re: The day I canceled my Spotify subscription

#311

Post by Aeolun »

BrandoElFollito wrote: post #107
wolframhempel wrote: post #85

I believe, Spotify is pretty much the best thing ever. I understand the criticism - but to me, this is just a sign of how far we've come. I was born in 1984 and, from a very early age, was really into Metal. That was a problem - since there were literally zero ways to discover new songs. The radio and MTV didn't play Metal. None of my friends shared my taste in Music. The listening stations at HMV & Co (remember thos…

When you were born I was a teenager in France recording music from the radio to a tape praying for the announcer to be short and not to talk over the song. And that the song is not cut. Such a tape was fantastic until you had to use a pen to rewind it. Spotify at that time was science-fiction movie worthy. This said, I listened to 20 sounds at that time and I have probably about 50 now that turn around :) The discove…

I remember using my 64mb MP3 player on repeat with 15 or so songs, but never really casette tapes.

Re: The day I canceled my Spotify subscription

#312

Post by 946789987649 »

Xeyz0r wrote: post #173

Spotify has removed several popular features over the years, such as the ability to view lyrics while listening to music and the option to sort playlists by date added. These changes have angered many users. Spotify's recommendation algorithms have been criticized for becoming less personalized and more repetitive. While Spotify remains one of the most popular music streaming services, it is clear that many users are…

> the ability to view lyrics while listening to music

You can still do that? Am I missing something?

Re: The day I canceled my Spotify subscription

#313

Post by Workaccount2 »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #260
jchw wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I take issue with this because it's kind of neither here nor there. You could give a more charitable interpretation by just treating Spotify as a music discovery service, that's not really what Spotify is marketed or intended for. Spotify is meant to be the ultimate end-game of online music streaming: it is meant to flat-out replace your giant MP3 library. And that's exactly how many people use Spotify. Not just Spot…

> I take issue with this because it's kind of neither here nor there. So people here are complaining about how Spotify does not pay the people who create music enough. And there exists a zero friction option to pay the people who create music. But people don’t want to use the zero friction option to pay the people who create music because it would cost $1 or $2 per song. So yeah. My opinion? People are just really ch…

The fundamental reason for why so much stuff is shit is because people ultimately above all else don't want to pay for it.

The internet largely sucks because of ads and tracking. But it's cheaper for users than paying directly, so it's what we are stuck with.

Re: The day I canceled my Spotify subscription

#314

Post by geraldhh »

crtasm wrote: post #284
wolframhempel wrote: post #85

I believe, Spotify is pretty much the best thing ever. I understand the criticism - but to me, this is just a sign of how far we've come. I was born in 1984 and, from a very early age, was really into Metal. That was a problem - since there were literally zero ways to discover new songs. The radio and MTV didn't play Metal. None of my friends shared my taste in Music. The listening stations at HMV & Co (remember thos…

> 11$/month I could have all the music. ALL OF IT. except the huge amount of music that will never be on there. and it's $11 every month, forever.

> except the huge amount of music that will never be on there.

and was there but isn't anymore

Re: The day I canceled my Spotify subscription

#315

Post by zdw »

ethagnawl wrote: post #87
jamesear wrote: post #63

I know this isn't a practical option for many, but there are still many simple audio players for self managed music collections. I use VLC on Android, and Amberol on Linux. They're both folder oriented, and stay out of the way.

I recently started using Navidrome to stream my old music collection and it's been a pleasure. It's also nudged me to actually download the music I've purchased on Bandcamp -- before that option inevitably goes away.

Same here - Navidrome has been a revelation. Simple to run, nice UI, only issue is that browsers can't support gapless playback, but lots of apps out there to help with that.

Re: The day I canceled my Spotify subscription

#316

Post by dabluecaboose »

NoLinkToMe wrote: post #49

Long article for a single comment: I quit Spotify because I can’t customise the home page which pushes podcasts and music I’m not interested in. For me I navigate my music via My Liked songs + my own playlists for particular moods. If I open the app and press play it defaults to where I left off. The fact there is a home page which shows options similar to what I like is fine, sometimes useful. Yes I’d prefer to cust…

> Long article for a single comment: I quit Spotify because I can’t customise the home page which pushes podcasts and music I’m not interested in.

The "podcast pushing" is an underrated reason to quit; It's why I did. I decided it was effectively a safety issue.

I subscribed to Spotify Premium when I bought a car and installed an Android Auto head unit, telling myself "this will basically be my radio and I can control it from the head unit without messing with my phone"

The breaking point for me was when I had to scroll past 3-4 rows of podcast suggestions (onto an entire other screen) to find any music on my homepage. At that point, I decided it was unsafe, and began the long, arduous path of going back to 2008 and buying all my music piecemeal to host on PlexAmp. I'm quite happy with the results now, though.

Re: The day I canceled my Spotify subscription

#317

Post by Triphibian »

Reading "Choke Point Captialism" by Cory Doctorow I learned that Spotify uses playlists to prioritize songs that cost less for them or pays out to artists they deal with. That notion, that the algorithm is more concerned with cash savings than serving you the songs you want to hear, really changed the way I think about these services -- and the idea of music recommendation writ large.

I currently subscribe to Apple Music, which I am sure is up to similar shenanigans. But to me their user front end is less egregious. It seems like Spotify barely wants to acknowledge that the 'album' is a thing. While Apple still offers me full records by artists I like or most like. This, currently, is the be scenario for my habits.

But yes, I would love a streaming service with a fully customizable front page a recommendation engine that allows the user to tweak the kind of suggestions they get, beyond the extremely vague "more of this or less of this" options.

Re: The day I canceled my Spotify subscription

#318

Post by vel0city »

Kiro wrote: post #184
itsoktocry wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't find Spotify that much different from Winamp Say what? Have you ever used Winamp?

Yes, but it was at least 20 years ago so please remind me.

Default library view has a search box at the top and three main panes. Two on top, one on bottom. Top left is a list of all the artists in your library. Top right is a list of all the albums. Bottom is a list of all tracks that match the existing filters. Click on an artist, and it filters the albums and tracks, Click on an album, and it filters the tracks. Very information dense, extremely fast search, very responsive UI.

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/RZcn2kEEAjWWV2jXYuJNUc.png

Compared to Spotify, where when I open it it defaults to a list of six playlists, a bunch of big fat tiles of podcasts I've never once listened to, a "Made for vel0city" horizontal scroll of auto-playlists, on and on. Extremely low density view, which is fine for a mobile device prioritizing touch but I'd like a denser view for desktop usage.

Re: The day I canceled my Spotify subscription

#319

Post by Semaphor »

Zambyte wrote: post #294
Semaphor wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but if I want to keep listening to music, I don't see a way around it Buying albums works. It’s what I do. It is markedly more expensive than Spotify, though.

> It is markedly more expensive than Spotify, though. A big reason I switched away from Spotify to buying DRM free albums is actually because I realized it's significantly cheaper to do the latter. I plan on listening to music for the rest of my life. I'm in my mid 20s. Let's say I live for another 60 years. At current Spotify prices, that is nearly $8000. Obviously the cost of premium won't be $11 for the next 60 ye…

I have a very large library. My monthly spending (over the last two years) on Bandcamp is 20€, and I don't even spend that much there compared to others. I do spend a lot of time listening to music

Re: The day I canceled my Spotify subscription

#320

Post by Workaccount2 »

koonsolo wrote: post #218
JazCE wrote: post #205

The Author doesn't understand how the streaming business works, and as far as I can tell, no one in the comments here has shone a better light on it. There is and there isn't just a pool of money that goes to beyonce, the weeknd and taylor swift... i say there is because what actually happens is, the collecting societies will collect the money, then distribute it based on streams correctly to the artists/writers/prod…

Since you seem to understand how it works, can you explain the following to me: Let's say I pay $10 to listen to my favorite indie band, for 1 hour each week. Let's say another user listens to Taylor Swift 24/7. Does my favorite band get my $10, or do they get $0.12? You see, when I pay $10, I don't expect $9.88 to go to Taylor Swift. Or does my favorite band actually gets my $10, like it used to be when I bought CD'…

Spotify should add an option to pay an additional $3/mo that is in fact distributed to the artists you listen to.

However based on my past experience with general public users, it will be a rounding error number of people who will opt into it.

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