Let me count the ways.
In addition to my pal Darko’s recent post explaining why he dropped Spotify, I was recently sent this article by another pal and #NewMusicFriday contributor Stephen Mejias from Pulitzer Prize winning writer Hua Hsu in The New Yorker:
Is There Any Escape from the Spotify Syndrome?
And this related article by Liz Pelly, author of the book “Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist“, that appeared in Harper’s:
I recommend both as essential reading. This is real journalism and each author makes a very convincing case for avoiding Spotify like the plague.
On a personal note, I’ve always steered well clear of Spotify because from day 1 their business practices devalued music yet with each passing profitless year CEO Daniel Ek has become richer (net worth in the billion$) while their payout to musicians have gotten even more minuscule. And as you’ll read in the linked articles, Spotify’s current business practices have become downright detrimental, i.e. harmful, to real musicians.
Here’s one nugget from the Hsu article:
“The service recently instituted a policy in which a track that registers fewer than a thousand streams in a twelve-month span earns no royalties at all. Some estimate that this applies to approximately two-thirds of its catalogue, or about sixty million songs. Meanwhile, during a twelve-month stretch from 2023 to 2024, Spotify announced new revenue highs, with estimates that the company is worth more than Universal and Warner combined. During the same period, its C.E.O., Daniel Ek, cashed out three hundred and forty million dollars in stock; his net worth, which fluctuates but is well into the billions, is thought to make him richer than any musician in history.”
And one from Pelly:
“It is in the financial interest of streaming services to discourage a critical audio culture among users, to continue eroding connections between artists and listeners, so as to more easily slip discounted stock music through the cracks, improving their profit margins in the process.”
Which brings to mind last year’s news—Pitchfork’s absorption into GQ is a travesty for music media – and musicians.
I’m not suggesting some grand conspiracy—dumb down the music buying public so you can feed them near zero cost music pablum to drive up profits—but that certainly seems to be Spotify’s business plan.
My position is straight forward—just say no to Spotify.
For the record I subscribe to and couldn’t be happier with Tidal and Qobuz [footnote 1] with Roon running the show. In my experience and for my tastes, there is no better combination of streaming service(s) and software when it comes to real and meaningful music discovery. And when I discover music I enjoy listening to over and over I buy the album, ideally the LP from Bandcamp which comes with a free download and where the bulk of the purchase—80-85%—goes directly to the artist(s) or their label.
1. Tidal and Qobuz offer lossless streaming, CD quality or better, while Spotify still uses a lossy codec (Ogg Vorbis) to deliver music even though they announced their ‘impending’ move to CD-quality streaming in 2021. I mention this as a footnote because I’m not at all interested in debating lossy vs lossless sound quality and even if Spotify streamed everything in super-duper hi-res with a cherry on top of each and every every track, I’d still say thanks but no thanks.
