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After announcing increased prices, Spotify to Pay Songwriters About $150 Million Less Next Year
(www.billboard.com)
this post was submitted on 09 May 2024
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Please, people, for the love of the gods, stop using Spotify. There are numerous other services that are so much better value for your money and don't treat artists (as much) like trash.
And that being said, try to support your beloved artists directly as much as you can. Buying digital downloads or physical media will give them more money than a lifetime of streaming ever would. Plus you get to keep the higher-quality music even if the platform or artist goes tits-up.
Could you give me some examples of alternative services? I'm paying spotify right now, but i'll love to ditch it.
Sure, although keep in mind this will vary by region due to licensing issues.
Deezer is probably Spotify's best direct competitor. They are priced equally (depending on region) and now offer high-res streaming as default instead of a paid extra. They've been expanding with new features such as lyrics, collab playlists, song identification, and they recently improved their recommendation system. They also offer a discount if you buy subs yearly instead of monthly so you can save if you like the platform.
Apple Music is also an option now that Apple has put in some work to make the platform easier to use on non-Apple devices such as the recently added Windows app. It's not as feature-rich as Deezer but if you don't use those added features anyway then it is an option. I personally would phrase it as "has less bloat". If you own any Apple devices already then it will have tighter integration with them.
Tidal is the old favourite of audiophiles and music appreciators. They have been expanding their platform with new features and music and, somewhat recently, have also lowered their prices. High-res streaming is now included in the base sub tier. All of these alternatives pay artists more than Spotify but Tidal has one of the best artist payouts.
Qobuz is similar to Tidal and is a premium platform with a focus on quality. They are a newer service and are still expanding their regions, so I don't have personal experience with them as they only recently opened up to my country. Their price and feature set looks competitive, though, and their UI does look slick. They also have better artist payouts.
Amazon Music apparently has better payouts for artists but Amazon is a shit company so I've never looked into them further. I'll include YouTube Music here as well which has shitty payouts and is a shitty company.
I invested heavily in the Amazon Music ecosystem, I bought hundreds of albums on there, and the platform is now very nearly unusuable. I cannot even listen to the songs that I paid for without also having to listen to ads. And the Android app now hides the downloads in some hidden folder so I can't even download them and listen to them on another player. It makes me furious.
I've actually gone back to CDs, if you can believe it. It's kind of nice sometimes, especially for full album plays, but I do miss a nice big playlist of my favorite songs from all artists.
I can believe it. I still have multiple libraries of physical media, and I pretty much never buy anything new that I can't likewise physically own. I might rip and make MP3's or transcode or emulate, or whatever, for convenience, but sometimes it's just nice to be able to stick the disk or cartridge in the machine and have it just work without any of the associated modern ancillary bullshit.
Everything wants to be a service now. I just find that so irritating.
Apple Music also has Dolby atmos and much higher quality audio files compared to Spotify.
The only thing Spotify has on everyone is excellent playlists. I just use SongShift to copy the playlists over.
Tidal is okay but I prefer Apple Music since it has a better UI, cheaper price and is more user friendly for my non-audiophile family members.
if you use Apple Music and have a desktop/laptop look into Cider 2. Incredible streaming music player. https://cider.sh/
Just looked into these. It doesn't look like any of these have official Linux apps :(
None of these have good app support compared to Spotify, sadly. Not supported by my car, nor my Linux desktop, or home speakers.
Oh and Deezer pays even less to artists than Spotify.
I don't think that's accurate. Care to provide your source?
The interesting thing about Tidal is that is was originally owned by artists (Jay-Z, Beyoncé; Kanye West; Madonna; Jason Aldean; Alicia Keys; Arcade Fire; Coldplay’s Chris Martin; Rihanna; and deadmau5) Who have since sold off a majority share to Block, while Jay-Z kept a board seat and other artists still have shares. Curious if it will last.
Tidal is the only one for me since it's the only one with an unofficial HiFi Linux client, which is a wrapper around the web version but with HiFi enabled.
I'm happy reading that they are decent on pay for artists.
What's the USP of Deezer over Apple Music now that the latter has lossless streaming as well (and live lyrics for longer)?
I'm enjoying Tidal
Thanks for the recommendation, I was worried they would be missing some of my artists but they had 99% of my music. Can't wait to ditch Spotify.
ETA: dear lord the sound quality is so much better. I had no idea what I was missing.
Yeah, happily using Tidal as well. Haven't missed any music that wasn't also missing from Spotify, so...
Yeh, it's pretty amazing.
Only thing I miss from Spotify are the user generated playlists, where I can search for something like "liquid drum and bass" and get a bunch of playlists
Does Tidal have a lightweight Linux client that's kept up-to-date?
Tidal on Linux is a crap shoot, which sucks because pipewire is awesome for HiRes music since it can change sample rate on the fly to match a source. Best bet is Firefox and their web player, and using the middle tier "high" that's blue colored, and letting pipewire play @ 44100
Check this web player wrapper, it allows for high and Max quality
https://github.com/Mastermindzh/tidal-hifi?tab=readme-ov-file#features
That runs on chromium, which in Linux is HARD locked to 48000, so every single song will be resampled.
As an Apple hater; Apple Music. Cheaper, good cross-platform frontends, more equitable to artists (though by no means satisfactorily so), has a Wrapped equivalent (though who actually cares). Maybe Spotify added something it doesn't have in the several years since I switched but, I doubt it
Apple Music is on Android?
Yup
Apple Music and Tidal.
Qobuz/Tidal/Deezer?
It's too convenient. Most people just want easy access and don't even think of the downstream impacts. If a song or two goes unavailable, probably won't notice. There is gonna need to be an alternative that is cheap and feature rich along with Spotify missing some steps. It's here for awhile.
You are not wrong, but there are other services that are just as convenient and for less money. Spotify knows they are the "default" music streaming platform and they are exploiting that.
A quick Google puts the top two at Apple and Amazon. So that is a big no for me boss. I am pretty sure the next ones listed are just torrent front ends. I have a life now so no time for that...spotify it is.
I use Tidal. It may not be much better than Spotify, but it's better than Spotify.
Audio quality is better and they pay the artists the most of all the major streaing platforms. I've been using Tidal for 2 years and have been very happy with the switch
While it doesn't have well known artists, indie streaming Resonate prides itself as having the most generous (or at least, close to) payments to artists. To support this, it has an innovative payment model akin to higher purchase. You pay a little for the first listen to a track, but the price increases through subsequent listens. After 9 listens, you own the track outright. The total cost of ownership is around $0.9
That's a cool model, at least at first glance
What is a better alternative, aside from just buying the media directly?
Well better than Spotify is a real low bar. I'm on an apple music family plan and I like it but if I weren't I'd probably get tidal. And they actually dropped the price of their high quality tier.
This is what we call competition, kids... i know most people don't understand the concept but it is supposed to make consumer make a change by providing a good deal.
This is the opposite we see nowadays, where they fuck you and say it is fine because "reasons"
Here's a link with more info
And specifically to your point
That alone should be enough to get people considering other options. I'm sure there's more beyond the big three too.
I got a few months of Apple Music with some device, was happy to ditch Spotify. Not very good, preferred Spotify’s UI and logic, but still a better alternative, and at least not pushing podcasts in my face (which I have zero interest in). I will never use Spotify again
I used Tidal for a year but went back to Apple Music. I don’t understand what people like about Tidal that Apple Music doesn’t offer.
They pay the artist more. And I like how they handle interacting with collaborative works.
It’s really 3 peanuts instead of 4. Streaming just doesn’t provide a lot of money for artists.
That's true. I still use Bandcamp. But as someone who listens to a lot of rap when I'm on a track and "view artist" I appreciate Tidal allowing me to choose which artist. Apple music defaults to the firs listed artist.
I'm enjoying Tidal
One of these services needs to release a feature like Spotify Connect, can't switch without a replacement for that.