I Quit Spotify • Hacker News Board

Re: I Quit Spotify

#111

Post by notachatbot1234 » Mon, Aug 12, 2024, 2:25 PM UTC

anotherhue wrote: post #79

Here’s an experiment you can do across any music service, count how many clicks/taps/interactions to go from a cold start to dark side of the moon. Now play their next album that you can’t remember the name of. For bonus fun count how many times it tries to interrupt you and have you listen to something cheaper, their in house podcasts or whatever the latest rap album they’re pushing is, despite that after tens of th…

> Shameless promotion: rad is an auto D.J. that actually does follow your preferences https://rad.fm/

Site tried to detect my location. That's creepy and invasive. Tab closed instantly.

Re: I Quit Spotify

#112

Post by nunez » Mon, Aug 12, 2024, 2:37 PM UTC

marginalia_nu wrote: post #5

I quit Spotify a few years ago as well. They kept changing stuff, breaking my work flow, with every change it felt like there was more friction to listen to the music and podcasts I wanted, and less friction to listen to algorithmically selected slop I didn't want to listen to. Eventually I just said fuck it. I don't need this source of stress and frustration in my life. I've never looked back. I'm on youtube music n…

Same. I especially disliked how they queued songs. They only allowed songs to be queued next, not at the tail of the list. Building an ad-hoc playlist was challenging.

I moved to Apple Music in 2018 and regret nothing.

Re: I Quit Spotify

#113

Post by crtasm » Mon, Aug 12, 2024, 2:45 PM UTC

Maakuth wrote: post #46

With Spotify subcription hikes, one could buy a lot of music. Does a decent MP3 or FLAC store exists nowadays? For some specific albums it's nice to have the physical object of a CD, but in general I'd rather not buy the plastic discs just to rip and store indefinitely.

Yes, try Bandcamp, Junodownload, Bleep, Qobuz. I'm sure there's many more.

Re: I Quit Spotify

#114

Post by crtasm » Mon, Aug 12, 2024, 2:52 PM UTC

tomduncalf wrote: post #40

reify wrote: post #2

sensible move. shitification thats spotify. I would like to see a HN inspired web site that lists all of the bands and musicians where we can click on a link and go directly to the band or musicians web site and buy or download the music directly from them. No middle man earning a small fortune off the backs of those talented musicians.

Bandcamp is close to this. Unfortunately the website is kind of dated IMO and even core flows like exploring, buying and downloading music feel somewhat painful compared to rivals, and there’s no real recommendation system. I would love to see a Bandcamp streaming service which fairly compensates artists and has a more discovery focussed UI, but they don’t seem that interested in evolving the product for whatever rea…

I know it's not what you're asking for but looking at who bought something I like, finding a few users with interesting looking collections and following them works quite well for recommendations for me. Sometimes I'll search for a specific DJ's user account to follow.

There's also the Discover tool at the bottom of their homepage which includes 'artist-recommended', a new and notable section, and they have regular blog posts for various genres.

You could also try https://bc-explorer.app/

Re: I Quit Spotify

#115

Post by dclowd9901 » Mon, Aug 12, 2024, 3:41 PM UTC

I must admit I’m a bit baffled here. I find the listening experience on Spotify to largely conform to what I want to do. If I want to discover new music, I’ll pick a song I like, create a station out of it and dig into songs/artists that populate it. If I want to go into an artist’s catalog, I’ll look up the artist (or visit them in my library after having added them to it) and find and album that I want to listen to.

I think the only thing that really bothers me is that you might add a song or an album to your library but for some reason that doesn’t automatically add the artist to your library. I feel like they should all be interlinked.

I don’t use the desktop app at all though. Maybe the mobile app just has a better design?

Re: I Quit Spotify

#116

Post by mostlysimilar » Mon, Aug 12, 2024, 3:46 PM UTC

For months now Spotify has locked me into algorithmic slop in its discovery features. In the past I had no problem listening to some chill lo-fi while I work and rock or indie or whatever for pleasure. The Discover Weekly playlist would give me a reasonable mix of these.

Nowadays my Discover Weekly is nothing but "lo-fi" elevator music, despite my best efforts to dissuade it with the dislike button. Worse, if you click in to any of the artists of these songs they're all mysteriously vacant profiles with no social media connections or descriptions.

I absolutely despise Spotify as a company and have felt trapped by them for years so maybe I have an unreasonable bias against them in thinking this, but the thought crossed my mind that they're creating this slop themselves to suck up as many streaming minutes as possible to avoid paying real artists/producers.

Of course, it's also possible they're just turning a blind eye to abusers who generate this stuff and flood the platform looking for a quick buck. Mutually beneficial for them I guess.

Re: I Quit Spotify

#117

Post by pennybanks » Mon, Aug 12, 2024, 3:53 PM UTC

dclowd9901 wrote: post #115

I must admit I’m a bit baffled here. I find the listening experience on Spotify to largely conform to what I want to do. If I want to discover new music, I’ll pick a song I like, create a station out of it and dig into songs/artists that populate it. If I want to go into an artist’s catalog, I’ll look up the artist (or visit them in my library after having added them to it) and find and album that I want to listen to…

ya i dont know about desktop app but mobile and website wise it blows away apple, prime, pandora and youtube music like by a long shot..

not to mention the recommendations is also on another level so their curated maxtapes. although i assume that last one has a lot to do with your genre preference but rap/hip hop wise i think its true.

the new song discoverability is the only reason i prefer Spotify even though i get prime and apple free from other bundles already.

i do like the library and playlist separation tho. youtube and i think apple are like this where if you delete off playlist it deletes off your library as well. its really annoying haha

Re: I Quit Spotify

#118

Post by dclowd9901 » Mon, Aug 12, 2024, 3:55 PM UTC

minkles wrote: post #38

Perhaps I’m old but I never got into this at all. I have a very carefully curated collection of music which is combination of CD rips, stuff from bandcamp and bootlegs and piracy. I can’t possibly replicate this with any online music service.

What do you do for discovery?

Re: I Quit Spotify

#119

Post by pennybanks » Mon, Aug 12, 2024, 4:01 PM UTC

marginalia_nu wrote: post #5

I quit Spotify a few years ago as well. They kept changing stuff, breaking my work flow, with every change it felt like there was more friction to listen to the music and podcasts I wanted, and less friction to listen to algorithmically selected slop I didn't want to listen to. Eventually I just said fuck it. I don't need this source of stress and frustration in my life. I've never looked back. I'm on youtube music n…

unlike other platforms that are basically free throw ins by the mega corps. Spotify is its own thing and there is no money in music streaming. at least so far and its due to the monopolistic practices of music licensing.

spotify has to try and distinguish or expand as seen with the heavy podcast investments and they desperately need hit features if they want to compete with the companies and stay profitable. for reference i believe this year will be the first profitable one

Re: I Quit Spotify

#120

Post by dclowd9901 » Mon, Aug 12, 2024, 4:02 PM UTC

leokennis wrote: post #48

In 10 (5? 25?) years I'd be very interested to read an "insider story" book about Spotify, similar in scope as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Plex or something. Spotify used to be cool and within the industry, the big example of engineering culture, agile with "the Spotify model" with squads and tribes etc. being able to adapt and ship stuff quickly. But now somehow it seems they regressed into an organization…

I think there’s a wider issue plaguing the tech industry right now, and it’s not relegated to any one company. It seems this newest generation of product managers and owners has absolutely no clue how to research, develop and build upon features. It’s the only explanation I have and it’s something I’ve observed in every company I’ve been in. The roles are typically filled with very young people with absolutely no background to support it.

What I generally see is they are reactive largely to the whims of leadership, they don’t understand their users, they don’t do any research or testing, they don’t aim for ambitious new ideas (more often aping what other companies do), so we’ve ended up in this milieu of product experiences that feel weirdly homogenous and ultimately very unfitting with what the product should be.

I’m just a guy but I hope someone with a louder, more important megaphone writes up something soon on this because the industry needs to shine a spotlight on these folks.