Lidarr + Jellyfin + Finamp… Need I say more?
Yes, because I have no idea what any of those things are.
Piracy and self hosting your music streams
Yes now tell us how to get that working on any device I have regardless of what network I’m connected to. Assume I’m behind a cgnat, don’t have my own domain, and know fuck all about networking.
Finally compare all that hassle to just paying a few bucks per month.
In the same boat. Shit country, behind CGNAT, no money for domain. I found a cheap seedbox I use. Yeah it depends on whether it’s worth the hassle… For me, I like tinkering with software and I love the concept of owning my media and that no company has their eyes on my data, so it’s worth it. But if you just wanna lay down and watch, Netflix it is. Something always breaks when you self-host 🥲
Honestly this. I’d love to maintain my own database of music, but streaming services did something right to make it so accessible.
Prices will need to hit a breaking point to scare people away, and even then they will keep using the next easiest thing (e.g. YT Music + ad block in my case).
It really just needs to get annoying enough to use. In my case, I enjoyed it for music discovery, but then its recommendation algorithm got like YouTube where one stray listen just wrecked my discover weekly playlist for a month. I have one friend who’s really into jazz, and maybe once every few months, I would click on one of his recommendations to see if he had found something that clicked for me. It got to the point where I stopped clicking on pretty much any recommendations, because Spotify would see that one song a quarter and go “Hold up,I think this guy wants nothing but atonal Yugoslavian free jazz in his playlist for the next month straight!”
It sounds like it would be nice, but it’s worse than the non-AI system it used before. At least before it mostly stayed within the same vibe. With the AI shuffle, it just feels completely random. It doesn’t even attempt to stay within a genre. I used it all of 20 minutes when it first came out and then turned it off and never touched it again.
Alternative:
Your whole queue is gone and I’ll just stop playing after this song
My queue disappearing is my number one issue with Spotify. It happens at the most inconvenient time, after I have spent ages getting it all together. I usually give up after that.
I use Spotify a lot but have zero clue what smart shuffle is
It’s supposed to add music similar to the playlist you’re listening to randomly to your queue. I think it’s just the enhance playlist feature with a different name.
I don’t mind adding to the end of a shuffled playlist you’ve a set, but not inserting between songs you’ve chosen. Don’t think YTM does that yet.
Its real purpose is to stuff your listening experience with cheap songs so that prick can make more billions.
I think most people would rather find new music than something that’s already popular with a million listens already myself.
Fuck Spotify. You’re better off - in every way - pirating and buying one album a year
That implies it’s even goddamn possible to get music files. It’s a lot harder than I expected if they don’t have bandcamp. I suspect region also fucks with it.
The last album I bought was slim shady in like 2001. I don’t even have anything that plays CDs anymore.
So? Buy a digital album. There’s plenty of ways, including, but not limited to, bandcamp.
Edit: Also, I never said ‘CDs’
Buying an album every month and ripping it for mobile is literally cheaper than Spoofy. No pirating required and there’s a real chance the artist might get a share!
Edit: I do mean a CD, or vinyl if that tickles your fancy.Thank you. I was trying to make it seem super low effort. I still have all my CDs but pretty much just buy vinyl and FLAC these days.
I swear they haven’t added a single fucking feature that is worth anything. Every single thing they do makes their product worse.
I have many friends that complain about these things, that noticed the exact same pattern as you.
And yet, every last single time I’ve ask them “Have you looked into using a different service? Maybe try one?” they mumble out a noncommittal response and never do.
The question is whether it bothers someone enough to switch, and I cant really say thats the case for me. Because copying the playlists over and the additional price increase (losing the family plan) are too annoying tbh.
This is it for me. I’m on a family plan so I don’t pay for premium and I’ve over 300 songs in a favourite playlist plus probably 100 odd albums saved. That’s a lot for me to try and transfer over.
I’ve tried amazon music google music and Spotify over the years. Spotify had by far the best library for me. The others were missing tonnes of incredibly big bands albums.
It’s because the things they don’t like aren’t big enough to switch and get new playlists etc.
I use tidal, and the only thing I miss from Spotify is the ability to transfer the music I’m listening to the PC or smartphone
I’m still bewildered by them changing the “Artists” tab in “Your Library” to show artists you follow (for event notifications) rather than just showing alphabetically, the artists in your library.
Its made the saved library useless for me. Once you have so much music it just becomes ridiculous to group them by album rather than artist. It feels like such an obvious thing that that is how the function should work but no, they insist on trying to make their music streaming service into some kind of social media-music streaming hybrid. Idiots.
I once got a message from spotify saying congratulations, your musical taste is unique, you haven’t liked a single song we have recommended. They haven’t stopped trying though.
Oh, it’s Spoofy.
I stopped paying for and using spotify when they a. renewed their contract with Joe Rogan b. changed their music payment policy so that if you aren’t trending, you make no money.
Fuck Spotify.
if you aren’t trending, you make no money
What now?
No payment for sub-1000 streams/year
In total per artist or per album or song or what?
To be fair, that equates to just above 3 USD per year if the numbers from the other post are correct.
Yeah, and although greedy, maybe not enough to ruffle feathers over.
Seems low tbh
I hate that stupid fucking smart shuffle, I have a playlist with 500+ songs but it only wants to play the first 20
I feel like I’m the only one around here who likes the Spotify recommendations. I’ve gotten so many bangers that fit my various little niche genre tastes.
I like getting recommendations, but that’s what the DJ is for. When I choose a playlist there’s usually a reason for it and adding random songs to it is not it.
See, I’d much rather just occasionally have to skip a song than listen to an AI mispronouncing band names.
It also cuts off the end of the song. Which is personally more irritating for me.
can’t labels and artists pay for some kind of premium placement in discover weekly, release radar, and playlist recs?
ok, after some research, found this:
In some cases, commercial considerations, such as the cost of content or whether we can monetize it, may influence our recommendations. For example, Discovery Mode gives artists and labels the opportunity to identify songs that are a priority for them, and our system will add that signal to the algorithms that determine the content of personalized listening sessions. When an artist or label turns on Discovery Mode for a song, Spotify charges a commission on streams of that song in areas of the platform where Discovery Mode is active (Discovery Mode is not active in our editorial playlists). This signal increases the likelihood of the selected songs being recommended, but does not guarantee it.
so, at the very least, the recs you get are definitely not organic, and favor major labels, rich folks, and if Spotify can make any money off streaming the track in the first place
not saying the algorithm doesn’t get it right most of the time (they’d be shooting themselves in the foot if it was all sponsored), but if it’s favoring big labels and drowning out everyone else in the name of revenue for Spotify, I prefer to choose other ways to find new stuff. if Spotify needs more money to pay the bills, imho they should plainly be asking the consumers up front
Bro so, Spotify is trippin on me. In my discover weekly it hit me with some bullshit called No cock like horse cock.
It started recommending gay playlists. Now I’m straight but I’m far from homophobic. Realized an artist I was listening to was gay so I let off. Then I got hit with another. And traced that one back to another artist. This one wasn’t so bad but it hit the chorus and went from a chill song to talking bout nuts slapping nuts.
I have to listen to their music outside of Spotify because honestly the recommendations are atrocious.
I listen to a meme song cause it’s stuck in my head and now what? The degeneracy of the Internet is my backyard. Featuring balls in my jaws, the Christmas edition and many more.
I often listen to my music while driving, and sometimes I just scroll and don’t look at song titles until something catches my attention.
Don’t mind the work truck. Also here’s my wrapped. Jake Hill I learned was a culprit lol.
used spotify for 10 mins, got tired of it. just use simpmusic from f-droid ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Also, they’ll probably kill the Car Thing permanently soon. Another bad move.
Hot take but hasn’t been a problem for me. Like, the feature stays off until I turn it on again, and I only turn it on when I’m trying to expand a playlist.
I use Spotify for discovering new songs, mostly for adding to the DJ arsenal. I listen to a lot of music. Enough that I make like 15-20ish playlists a year for various subgenres of tunes either released or discovered that year.
Since I compartmentalize my genres so methodically, smart recommendations tend to be on the money and more of what I’m looking for. But again, when I just wanna hear what I’ve assembled I just leave it off – never on unless I turn it on.
Definitely been eyeballing alternatives though, since Spotty is getting deeper into their enshitty arc.
I never want to turn it on, but I do swap from shuffle to regular (depending on whether I want to listen to just the newest stuff I’ve added), which means I have to click through smart shuffle now too.
Which wouldn’t be a huge problem, but if you do it too fast, smart shuffle appears to be off, but the songs it has added are at least partially still in the queue.
Yeah, I had to read this meme several times over to figure out what it was saying. Smart Shuffle just randomly turns on for people? I’ve literally never had that happen. It only turns on when I turn it on.
Unpopular suggestion these days, but I still find Pandora has the best discovery of the streaming platforms. If you pay for their premium you can make playlists and play songs on demand, too. It’s not as good of a UI, but for me it does what I want better than Spotify.
Don’t use Spotify. Use Tidal, Apple Music, or just pirate and support authors other ways.
Yep after first releases and concerts, the only people benefitting from the music are the distributors who deserve nothing for the effort the artist put in.
The distributors are the only people doing any work and providing a service after the artist walks out of the recording studio.
They are not the talent providing the work. They are skimming off talent. They are riding on someone else’s talent. They are the very definition of parasites. They would have no job if there were no talent. Meanwhile the talent can find other ways to sell their work.
The “talent” doesn’t have a platform without them. This is a mutually beneficial relationship. The "talent would be waiting tables and playing for peanuts in bars without the industry professionals.
What value do “industry professionals” add in 2024?
Not OP, but I work in the industry, mostly in the live production side. Here’s a taste of behind-the-scenes stuff that artists often rely on others to handle after they leave the recording studio:
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Booking shows, radio and television appearances, and other events
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Advancing those events with venue staff
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Organizing transportation, lodging, and food for tour
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Acquiring and managing all of the gear for tour
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Getting the artists from show to show while protecting them from themselves and others
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Marketing for shows and new releases
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Mixing the material the artist just recorded in the studio
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Mastering the music the mix engineer put together from that recorded material into a dozen different formats, so you can listen on vinyl, Deezer, YouTube, Spotify, etc.
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Mixing the front-of-house (what the audience hears) and mixing the monitors (what the artist hears) for the live show
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Making sure all the folks involved with the above are booked
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Paying all the folks they booked to make the above happen
I’m not saying the entertainment biz isn’t fucked up and that artists don’t deserve a bigger slice of the pie, but a lot of artists rely on other folks to handle this stuff for them so they have the space to live their lives, create new music, and give audiences a show worth attending.
Certainly, I depend on people more creative and musically talented than me, but they also depend on me and my technically-proficient and business-savvy peers to translate their creativity into something you can access and enjoy.
Thanks for a great reply. I totally see the need for recording engineers (live and mechanical) and related jobs.
Can you compare the industry now to 10 years ago. What jobs have disappeared? The music press seems much less relevant. Does the A&R executive still exist? Etc.
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I switched to Tidal a few weeks ago, primarily because of lossless streaming, but also fuck Spotify for your price hikes. Not going back.
How’s the artist selection? I find a lot of stuff on Spotify that is a bit niche and I wondering if they have it. I tried searching the catalog which they say you can do but not before you sign up for their free trial which I’m not willing to
I find there are a few niche artists/songs that arnt on tidal, but it still had a majority as well as some new options of the same genre
Imo spotify had way better playlists (a lot of specific user created ones are great) but u can just transfer the playlist to tidal with a site
I was using tidal and spotify for a bit, as tidal works with my dj software, but they just added a new pay teir for using it for those softwares :/
Overall i still used spotify more than tidal but i didn’t have a bad time on tidal
So far I’ve found everything I looked for, and a few new ones too. Their app features for lyrics and other songs you might like work great. Admittedly, I’m an old metal head who loves singing to a song at the top of the voice, out of tune of course, so I might not be skirting the kinds of niches you like.
I did the same. Paying $11 a month and getting lossless has been a big plus. There were a few songs that were unavailable from my liked songs when moving to Tidal but I also had noticed several songs on my Spotify were unavailable as well too.
My only gripe so far is the Android app drains my battery more than Spotify did, even in the lowest streaming quality.
Or, continue to use Spotify but use xManager on android and spicetify on pc. This will give you the premium experience (and more!) without paying a single penny.
I gave xManager a go, and while it doesn’t have ads interrupting your listening, it does still have all the Spotify pop up ads trying to get you to upgrade to premium. It’s fine when listening, but selecting what you’re listening to is still irritating.
that’s strange, I’ve never had that
My premium Spotify account has resulted in me buying tickets and merch from artists I had never heard of. What’s wrong with that?
how do you need premium for that
Because if I had to listen to ads I wouldn’t use it.
with xManager or spicetify you don’t have to listen to any ads either
Yeah, those days are generally behind me. I want something that always works and I don’t mind paying for a functioning product. I don’t think comparing an actual service with ways of essentially stealing that service is a fair comparison, but I appreciate what you’re saying.
are you implying these apps don’t always work? because I’ve had little issues with them in the past few years (except that some extensions might stop working but those are just extras so 🤷)
Can also recommend Qobuz which allegedly pays even more than tidal. And it also has real losless audio, instead of whatever Tidal is doing.
And you can even buy FLAC files from them, without DRM. Or use tools which you can find on the internet, where you can download the flac files ‘for free’ (you still need a subscription).
Wait, so we all hate, or should hate Spotify for the low support for artists, but now that I think about it, there is nothing stopping artists from putting their work in the other platforms as well, are they becoming more rich because of it and we just should go with whichever offers the best service for us?
Don’t be harsh on me, I am not defending Spotify at all, just a dumb realization while seeing this graph 😆
Deezer exists.
No wonder deezer lacks most of my beloved artists.
I’m loving tidal. Been a few months now.
I’m finding so much more awesome music now. Spotify seemed to get stuck in suggestions where I went “yeh, I guess that’s kinda similar, but that’s not actually what I like about those artists”.What happens at the y-axis is pure magic.
