Oct 30, 2024
#blog
I made the hard decision to terminate my Spotify Premium subscription very recently.
Well, more like my student rate expired and the actual rate is laughably expensive now. $12 a month?? I remember a time when it was half that!
Anyway, this has given me an opportunity to rethink what it means to stream music. Everyone knows that Spotify treats artists terribly by paying them literal couch chnage, and whenever I release music I vow to never put it on any streaming services, but there's way more to it. As an enjoyer and kinda-sorta creator of art, I have begun to realize, Spotify is actually way, way worse than I thought.
The illusion of being able to listen to anything is just that... an illusion. Yes, I do have Spotify's recommendation algorithms to thank for exposing me to some artists whose work I really enjoy, but at some point the algorithm will only take you so far. When starting out, sure, it'll give you a nudge towards things you like, but now as someone who has probably streamed tens of thousands of unique songs over the past few years, I don't get as excited to use Discover Weekly or whatever they call it. And why may that be?
Perhaps it's because I have way too much saved? At the time of my Premium ending, I had nearly 2000 entries in Liked Songs, and it would be far more if I didn't clean it out semi-regularly. But when you hit shuffle on that playlist, you'll be skipping stuff 95% of the time. Without fail. To be fair, it is literally what it says on the tin... everything you've saved. It's reasonable that not everything you've saved will fit a vibe. Even still, unless you passionately make playlists, which is not something everyone does, you'll just be shoved song after song and keep hitting skip until you get what you want. That's not very fun.
The curse of Spotify lies in its size. It feels more like an empty catalog of music and less like a chance to appreciate the creators themselves. For me, the unit of measurement of music is not an individual track, but the artist. So yeah, that means I will buy their work on Bandcamp if I can, try and go see them if they're playing near me, or even just engage with fellow fans. Those are the artists that stick with me the most, not the ones that appear in a lot of playlists. When you're so used to a service like Spotify that redefines the very nature of music as something that can be hoarded and aggregated, the act of directly supporting an artist vanishes.
Throughout this year, I've noticed that my usage of Spotify has plateaued. As mentioned, my discovery rate is down, buy also my willingness to just stick in Spotify while working or studying has declined. If I do need noise, it's usually a podcast, long YouTube video I've already watched 76 times, or whatever I have downloaded on my computer (which is usually video game soundtrack or piano covers - or both). The main use I have had for Spotify is sometimes while commuting or otherwise traveling. Effectively a radio station, except that it actually plays the stuff I like. That's not really worth paying $12 a month for, is it now.
The free tier of Spotify really is just a slightly better radio. You can only listen to playlists on shuffle, you're not able to see what's next in the queue, you can't skip much, and you get plenty of ads. But maybe using the free tier forces you to be more careful with what you actually put into a playlist. Just hitting shuffle on liked is effectively useless. And until I can figure out a way to port everything I listen to on my computer onto my phone, Spotify's free tier will do.
That said, please go support artists directly if you're able. I'm never giving the company another penny.