While I agree that this is stupid, why would a deaf person be using Spotify in the first place?
this post was submitted on 28 Jun 2024
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Deafness isn't binary, they could be capable of hearing the music but not making out the lyrics.
And even people who cannot hear anything at all still feel the bass and stuff.
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As someone who is not deaf, this was a really helpful comment to help me understand, thank you.
To everyone else reading down here, lot of people also don't really get this same idea with visual impairment and other handicaps.
There are a lot of people who are legally blind, but that just means they can't make out things at certain distances, and these are why we need things like high-visibility curbs and street markers and large-type text options and other accessibility features that able-bodied people in a wide field of industries often forget about and just assume either people are blind and won't be using their products, or will have perfect vision. When really there are far more people who are considered deaf or blind who can still enjoy many of the same things as someone with fully faculties and just need a little extra help.
I am only typing this out because we seem to entering a strange time in the developed world where more and more people are withdrawing from the social contract and not extending compassion towards others, particularly those with special needs.
When I was little I thought the future would be a bright and remarkable place where people took care of each other, because those were the messages you see on PBS shows like Mr Rogers and Sesame Street. Turns out, a LOT of people didn't watch those shows.
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So I'm not deaf, not in the slightest, but I struggle to understand lyrics in music. I love music, I live and breathe it and I'm gonna dedicate my life to it, but I've always struggled with understanding lyrics in music. To me, the vocalist is just another instrument in the mix. Having lyrics to read helps me appreciate my favorite tunes more!
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If it were a paid account yeah, it'd be extremely shitty. But seeing as it's a free account, it's their prerogative to try and get people to pay for the service. Besides, I don't get this entitlement that spotify has to provide music for free. They're a (admittedly greedy) middle-man that wants to get paid. If one wants free music and everything, well, time to self-host.
it's their prerogative to try and get people to pay for the service.
Except that this attempt could easily be shown to largely land on folks with accessibility needs. That's a big no-no under many laws.
An interesting comparison is pay-to-ride elevators. For most folks an elevator is a nice convenience they would not mind occasionally paying for.
But for some folks, the elevator is completely essential. This dynamic resulted in making pay-to-ride elevators illegal in most places, today.
Due to the uniquely fucked up way music licensing works, it's likely they license the lyrics through a separate company than the music and probably don't even directly license it themselves (Tidal for example uses Musicmatch's lyric library and api). There's a cost associated with this that is likely outside their control. It's shitty, but it is plalusibly reasonable they implemented this as a cost savings measure.
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Wow, that's hot trash. Imagine subtitles on movies and TV being stuck behind a paywall.
shhh don't give them ideas jesus what are you doing
I mean, technically a lot of them are, you can't see subtitles for most movies without paying to see the movie, same with any TV show you can't watch with just an antenna.
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I guess deaf people aren't allowed to enjoy music like the rest of y'all.
I'm so sorry but this is the absolute funniest shit I have ever read. 😂
Being deaf is a spectrum. There are plenty of people who still have some hearing, and are “hard of hearing”. There’s deaf people who can enjoy music through the use of hearing aids as well. There’s also totally deaf people who can enjoy music because of the vibrations. There’s people whose hearing is just bad enough that they don’t understand what anyone is saying without subtitles/lyrics. Deaf in only one ear, etc.
I might get a bit of hate for this considering the community name, but Spotify is the one subscription I pay for and don’t feel like I’m getting ripped off. Basically every song I want is on there, they very rarely remove content, and the algorithm actually comes up with decent recommendations. I even like some of the other random features like Spotify wrapped.
But the main difference I see vs other subscriptions is that I don’t feel locked in, since there are no Spotify originals etc if they ever make the service too shit (which admittedly they might since they keep raising the price and trying to shove podcasts down everyone’s throat) I could easily switch to a different streaming service or even go back to just buying music outright
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If you want Spotify for free and lyrics for free, just Google the lyrics...
While I mostly agree, there is a difference. In Spotify, you can play a song and it highlights the lyrics as they are sung
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wait why should deaf people enjoy music? And not through vibrations but LYRICS?!?!
I'm thinking it's not Spotify that is keeping deaf people from enjoying music, but fuck the subscriptions also.
This one is actually out of their hands. Lyrics aren't free sadly and they have to pay for API calls. It's fucking stupid but the labels are the ones at fault here.
Fuck Spotify nonetheless.
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why the FUCK does anyone still use spotify, it's a fucking joke. Unusable without paying for it.
paying $15 a month to listen to anything I want instantly is worth it
They don't have everything. I have plenty of tracks on my drive at home that aren't available. ALSO, sometimes you'll find a track you like and save it locally in Spotify, then Spotify decides they don't like that track anymore and you no longer have access to it. It still shows up in your library but it's grayed out.
Also their shuffle button is hot garbage, at least on Android. It's been garbage for years and it recently got even worse.
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I'm a bit confused. Do deaf people listen to music? Lyrics are generally freely available via Google.
Edit: see reply for a good explanation.
Deafness covers a broad spectrum of hearing difficulty, not just completely deaf. Most people that identify as deaf still have some hearing. I always forget that and had the same question as you until I read a comment further down.
It's likely that the person isn't fully deaf and so can still hear some music, but deaf enough that they can't understand the lyrics. Having the ability to view the lyrics in real time is handy rather than having to search them up all the time. Spotify also shows what lyric is currently being sung in real time, whereas you can't get that with a Google search.
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Agreed.
I spent the last month converting all of my Spotify likes to MP3 files and ended my subscription in Mid-June.
Their greedy, shrinkflating, enshittifying asshole CEO can go fuck himself.
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I know Lemmy hates Apple, but if you want a Spotify alternative with good accessibility, then this is pretty cool:
Music Haptics is a new way for users who are deaf or hard of hearing to experience music on iPhone. With this accessibility feature turned on, the Taptic Engine in iPhone plays taps, textures and refined vibrations to the audio of the music. Music Haptics works across millions of songs in the Apple Music catalogue, and will be available as an API for developers to make music more accessible in their apps.
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damn thats crazy, i'm out here with my 300GB collection of music that i own and control and i can just, add lyrics to shit if i want to.
I don't because i'm not deaf and i don't really care for lyrics all that much, but it's also just, automated.
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I'm so confused by people under this post defending a company's scheme to make more money that disproportionately affects disabled people.
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I killed my Spotify account when they started shoveling millions of dollars at Joe Rogan, and everything they've done since then only confirms I made the right call.
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You can look up lyrics on Google for free, or what?
The lyrics on Spotify play along/highlight as the song plays so you can read along in time with the song.
This is actually a vital accommodation for the hard of hearing and partially Deaf because we can often hear/feel the beat and sometimes the melody, but we don't know exactly where in the song were up to because the tune of all the versus sounds the same, or vocal breaks of "ooooooh, lalala" can be mistaken for the start of a new line of lyrics.
So if you're just reading along with a static page of lyrics, it takes a lot of mental energy to figure out what's happening with the song, especially if it's a new song you're discovering.
We've had static lyric sheets for decades, you'd unfold the sleeve in your record and try to read along as you listened, never 100% sure you were doing it right unless a fully hearing friend was there to point at the words and be your version of the bouncing ball.
So to have this technology that almost completely solves this problem for a vulnerable community... Then to put it behind a pay wall despite the fact that Deaf people are more likely to be underemployed and socially disadvantaged than the general hearing populous is just callous.
Our experience of music is fundamentally different to hearing people, and yet Spotify will charge us the same rate for a sub par experience.
As a non-deaf person, I came in here looking exactly for your comment. Reading the post, I was confused as to how deaf people even enjoy music. You told me exactly the things I wanted to understand in a very good, and even relatable way. Thank you!
Search for something called “Spicetify” and make sure to install the marketplace as well for more addons.
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I didn't even know they did that, Glad I don't have an account with them. I'm partially deaf, most music I can't understand what someone singing. Those fun things people do of like "most common misheard lyrics" is basically my life. On the plus side I enjoy music from around the world because unintelligible music is unintelligible no matter where it's from. They're very few artists I feel like I can understand, and realistically I'm probably wrong.
In real life, I read lips to help augment my terrible hearing. Fun fact during the mask man dates during COVID, was probably the worst time for me. A lot of people I could hear talking as I could hear noise but I could not make out what it was. Leading to a lot of awkward conversations.
Anyhoo, that's all to say that for music that I do like I do have to see the lyrics. It's what converts the noise into words.
So, fuck you Spotify, My life's difficult enough already, I'm not paying your shitty service so you can charge me for my impairment.
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I left Spotify for Tidal. But why would anyone feel obliged for free music from a commercial host? Just self host if you dont want to pay. Piracy is always morally right. It's preservation of cultural heritage.
I choose to pay for Tidal because of convenience. I refuse to pay for more than 2 streaming services. It's fairly easy for any adult to make choices like that.
This is an imagined problem and a fairly new one to.
Left handed people having to use tools and appliances designed for right handed people is an actual bigger issue.
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