this post was submitted on 07 Sep 2023
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Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (10 children)

Why do people use Spotify still? Momentum?

Edited for clarity, I'm not saying music streaming I'm specifically referring to getting it from one company.

Whose CEO heavily invests in military AI

And pays artists' (and of course labels) the least out of their competitors?

[–] [email protected] 35 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I don't get why anyone would use the free tier - not being able to choose songs would actually drive me insane, let alone the ads - but $11 monthly for essentially all the music anyone could ever want, plus solid playlists and recommendations, is a perfectly good value for me. Admittedly, I listen to music all the time and it's a pretty big part of my life, so it's an easy sell.

I guess the free tier is still an improvement over radio, but regardless, producing and distributing music has costs, and I'm more than happy to pay for it. Given that Spotify isn't even profitable, having lost about a billion dollars last year, I'm not sure how long this situation will last, but for the time being, I really don't mind it.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

11$/month is 132$/yr. That's a significant amount of money - about the same as my car insurance, broadband or phone bill. Putting a bunch of good music in a playlist and letting it roll is nice enough, especially with a 3rd party app to mute ads automatically. Besides, I don't feel sorry for Spotify. The reason they're hemorrhaging money isn't a lack of profitability, but due to the massive royalties going to record companies.

E: spelling

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

For the median American that works full-time, who earns around $56,000, the cost of Spotify is 0.2% of their income.

Obviously everyone is in their own financial situation and for some people that will still be a burden. But for sake of comparison, in 1989, the average cost of cable TV was $18, and that's of course in 1989 dollars. I don't think it's unreasonable to say that $11 for unlimited access to basically all music at any time is a pretty good value for the money.

That said, if it is still onerous to someone, they're obviously not in ideal circumstances and I'm really not gonna fault them for just pirating.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Swedish student (Median full-time wage here is 35’790 USD equivalents before an avg ~30% payroll tax), not taking loans, working part time teaching (and occasionally nursing) to make ends meet, so yeah, pretty cash strapped atm.

Also, note that I already do have access to all the music in the world for free via youtube if I want something specific, or spotify for “radio style” infinite listening. 1440SEK/132USD is for added conveniences. No real need to pirate anything.

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[–] [email protected] 35 points 1 year ago (41 children)

It's convenient. It's where all my playlists are... that said, I'm open to alternatives?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)
  1. Listen on YT with adblock
  2. Download audio with Newpipe (OPUS 160kbps)
  3. Manage files with Amaze
  4. Listen with VLC

I like this model, because YT has niche creators and I dont have to care about "Spotify changes X" news. Note: I have 1.5GB songs stored locally and listen ~30 minutes daily. I acknowledge discovering new songs is slower

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

You can just use NewPipe background player. NewPipe lets you create and save playlists. No ads.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Momentum is the driving force behind all enshitification.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

You nailed it. People’ve been using it for so long they don’t want to use any number of paid or free services to automatically move all their playlists and whatnot over to a different service.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

What would you suggest as an alternative?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The random algorithm needs to be polished though.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Random usually sucks for everything that I've used.

They should have two... True random and one that 'radioifies' your library.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Basically exclusively because of Spotify Connect and the network effect. A lot of the music I listen to isn't even available on Spotify.

I prefer Deezer's recommendation algorithm. I don't have experience wity other streaming services.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

If you have an eclectic music taste and don't spend your life next to a computer, there's practically no other option

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Tidal, Deezer, Qobuz, Funkwhale, Apple Music, Youtube Music, just to name a few. Spotify has no shortage of competition.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

Apple music, Tidal, etc.

Spotify is funding military AI tech. That's enough for me. I'm on android but I'd still rather use Apple Music, plus they pay artists slightly more, and tidal pays more than them.

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