So I Quit Spotify

Biggest reason to get rid of it is because it just encourages a 'mile wide and an inch deep' music consumption. What I've been doing for several years now is just setting on maybe two dozen albums or so every year and really listen and re-listen actively. People have also noticed that streaming has discouraged if not destroyed entire forms of music, like the concept album. As a teenager I really loved just listening through Dream Theater's Metropolis over and over and I hadn't done that in ages after starting to stream music.

Nabokov used to say the only good reader is a re-reader, because only by engaging deeply do you actually ever get to any level of detail, and the same is true for music as well really.

> My main reason was this: Spotify has been paying artists £0.003 per stream.

Fair enough

> Another reason [...] I [...] will listen to the same 3 songs over and over

Ok, personally I like variety and discovery new

> I wanted to own my music again

You can do that and subscribe to streaming services

> I downloaded a 13-minute long Taylor Swift megamix, and CAN YOU DO THAT ON SPOTIFY? I didn’t think so

Actually that specific mix is on Spotify...

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4X56PaJmkNIfEHieJBMK2h?si=...

I'd like to point out that with a good ad blocker, Spotify free tier with the web client is nearly indistinguishable from Spotify Premium.

Amish hand crafted comforters in my area start at $1600. The comforters are of much higher quality, better materials, stitching, etc than a Walmart purchased comforter. The comforters will last for at least two generations. They don't sell as many comforters as Walmart does though. They won't be making a living on their comforters anytime soon.

So, what is the Amish's answer to this? It's the same as all other businesses: diversification.

In the case of the Amish, that diversification comes in the form of other products, such as jams and jellies, candles, knickknacks, glass blown objects, etc.

Perhaps music is the comforter of products. Perhaps the answer to music's woes is to diversify.

> And in 2024, Spotify will stop paying out songs which get less than 1000 streams in a year. Which means for me, as an artist in the early stages of my career, I am going to get paid nothing. I could get over 1000 streams on all my songs in total, but still get paid nothing. I could get 999 streams on a song one year and 999 streams on it the next year… and still get paid nothing.

I somewhat understand the idea the author is trying to write down, but thats 3€ a year per song an artist is potentially missing out. I dont think any artist is going to cry after those few bucks.

I also don't use Spotify for reasons of 1) wanting to own my music, and 2) lack of curation features, i.e. custom fields.

It's truly a joy to have a music library that I know is my own, with the freedom to construct it exactly how I want. Custom fields are a must-have for me, and I don't get why Spotify doesn't have that as a feature (I use MediaMonkey on Windows, but looking for alternatives that are a bit more modern-feeling).

Use Spotify for discovery and convenience; purchase vinyl and go to shows to support the artists.

I keep hearing artists are not happy with their earnings from spotify. But Netflix does not have to seem that problem. Even though the subscription fees are about the same (for me at least). And making movies is also expensive.

So what is the difference?

If you want to listen to complete albums at a time, Albums on iOS is really great.

https://www.albumstheapp.com/

I'm quitting Spotify because after all that whining about Apple not playing fair, they haven't implement airplay 2, or siri support on homepods.

here i was thinking we'd be treated to a post about quitting as an employee

i mean, good for the author and i agree with a lot of the enshittification of music streaming apps, but yeah not sure this particular post is hn material

Nobody cares