I don’t use Spotify and neither should you. In this little think piece (which no one asked for but I am going to write anyway) I am going to attempt to convince you to delete your account (and, if you’re an artist, ask your distributor to delete all your music from the platform).
I know what you’re thinking. “What? I love Spotify! What have they done wrong?” I would ask “What have they done right?” From the beginning, they have been dishonest and arrogant, robbing artists while offering users the worst possible sound quality, the most ads, and the most corrupt algorithm. Now their (recently) ex-CEO has started, of all things, an AI weapons company called Helsing. This was the last straw for many artists like Deerhoof, King Gizzard, Xiu Xiu, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Massive Attack, who have all publicly left the platform.
I am aware of the argument from the big streaming services regarding payment: they don’t pay artists, they pay the record companies. If the record companies keep that money and don’t pay their artists, that’s not the fault of the streaming platforms. (They sound just like Kier Starmer)
Here’s a few links, just in case you wanted to see what the Hell I’m banging on about:
This is the Financial Times (no less) with some serious data on Helsing (Ek’s company): https://www.ft.com/content/cdc02d96-13b5-4ca2-aa0b-1fc7568e9fa0
That’s probably enough, right? What more could there be to add, here? (especially if you read all the stuff about what Helsing’s “AI strike drone” actually does (spoiler alert: it kills people))
I am actually going to come at you from a different angle, here. You should ditch Spotify because it’s shit. It’s shit for artists, it has the worst sound quality and it’s a terrible music platform: full to bursting with adverts, AI Slop, conspiracy bro podcasts, 432Hz bullshit (don’t get me started!) and some of the most boring music ever recorded. And it’s very expensive.
There are so many better alternatives. Let’s start with YouTube Music. Is Google evil? Unequivocally, yes. Yet, somehow, even that giant monopoly is more ethical than Spotify. They also have a better, less clunky streaming service that seamlessly integrates the mighty behemoth YouTube for one price (it’s what I use).
Is Apple an evil corporation? You don’t get to become the world’s most profitable company by being ethical, so absolutely. Somehow, they are also demonstrably less evil than Spotify.
There are a lot of other alternatives like Deezer, Tidal, Amazon Music…
*After I wrote this article, the Guardian published this, so it’s not just me. I would like to make a case for bandcamp, but I think that’ll be another post.