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[-] pulsewidth@lemmy.world 25 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Being a millennial I remember conversations about what a scam record label deals were to artists because they'd only give bands a few dollars for each CD sold. This is of course old news to gen X and older who had known earlier that record deals were a scam usually heavily slanted in favour of the label.

Then Spotify came out and it was reported that it gave ~$0.003-0.007 per stream to labels (then artists would get a smaller cut of that), and I dismissed it as a hilariously terrible deal.

But I was wrong and most people seemed very happy to give up their mp3 & physical collections so they could stream a wider library, I guess it's unrealistic to expect most people to choose ethics over convenience. There does seem to be a swing back to rolling your own micro server hosting something like Navidrome or Plex and streaming your own music, which is great to see.

P.s. I'm a KGatLW fan and have a couple albums on Bandcamp, this is gonna make me buy a couple more in support. Great group of people

[-] Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 1 points 10 hours ago

How do you compare the value of a stream to the value of a CD though? You can listen to the CD repeatedly without paying again.

[-] fne8w2ah@lemmy.world 2 points 18 hours ago

That should be rightfully recognised as 21st century payola aka payola 2.0.

[-] Retrograde@lemmy.world 2 points 19 hours ago

Preach, dude.. I'm sadly guilty of this and need to reestablish a good local collection of music again like back in the iPod days.

[-] gaiety 3 points 1 day ago

my favorite part of my home lab server is being able to listen to the music I own without guilt

i just wish it was easier for more people to do

[-] Hermit_Lailoken@lemmy.world 64 points 2 days ago

Another reason, beyond Joe Rogan, to drop Spotify.

[-] A_norny_mousse@feddit.org 21 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I wonder if there's a list of artists that dropped out; Neil Young, King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, who else?

edit: oh, Deerhoof too! Yay!

[-] datavoid@lemmy.ml 11 points 2 days ago

Didn't Neil go back though?

[-] A_norny_mousse@feddit.org 32 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Looks like it. *sigh*

“My decision comes as music services Apple and Amazon have started serving the same disinformation podcast features I had opposed at SPOTIFY. I cannot just leave Apple and Amazon, like I did Spotify, because my music would have very little streaming outlet to music lovers at all, so I have returned to Spotify, in sincere hopes that Spotify sound quality will improve and people will be able to hear and feel all the music as we made it. Qobuz and Tidal, where my music is presented, are all High res as well.”

At least he was on the right side of history during the pandemic.

[-] cokeslutgarbage@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Joni Mitchell left and came back, too

[-] Almacca@aussie.zone 3 points 2 days ago
[-] MagicPterodactyl@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 days ago
[-] jjjalljs@ttrpg.network 74 points 2 days ago

Cool. I've been off Spotify for years. Buying music from Bandcamp and similar has worked out. (Though now that I'm unemployed I'm not spending any money, but like I always say if capital wants me to spend money they have to pay me some first)

[-] teawrecks@sopuli.xyz 39 points 2 days ago

Quick note for anyone going this route: take note of when Bandcamp Fridays happen and buy your music then. They waive their cut and much more of your payment goes directly to the artists! I take those days to go through my follow list and buy any new albums that have come out since the previous Friday.

I put them on my Plex server and use Plexamp to stream them. Jellyfin has Finamp that I hear is also good.

[-] ne0phyte@feddit.org 3 points 18 hours ago

Good call. Useful site for those who take advantage of bandcamp Fridays regularly: https://isitbandcampfriday.com/

[-] A_norny_mousse@feddit.org 39 points 2 days ago

I love King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard!

Now I love them even more!

[-] markovs_gun@lemmy.world 26 points 2 days ago

Love this band, and it makes Spotify less useful to me that they're off it

[-] SethTaylor@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

Well... it looks like they achieved their goal 😅

Try Tidal? I was told an endless amount of times that it wouldn't have all the music I like, but so far I've found absolutely everything I needed.

[-] chrislowles@lemmy.zip 6 points 1 day ago

I hope this wave influences more big names to release on Bandcamp, at the very least.

[-] Tempus_Fugit@midwest.social 27 points 2 days ago

Gizz on the right side of history as always.

Totally read that as "Jizz on the right side of history".

[-] randomuser38529@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

why not both?

[-] VerilyFemme 18 points 2 days ago
[-] jwr4209@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 days ago
[-] AstaKask@lemmy.cafe 15 points 2 days ago

Nice. Spotify sucks ass. I just use Tidal nowadays but there are other, better alternatives.

[-] hushable@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days ago

I've been looking into migrating to Tidal, what other better alternatives are out there?

The only reason I stuck with Spotify for so long is because I don't really pay for it (long story short, a family member gets a free family plan through her job)

[-] jwr4209@lemmy.ca 15 points 2 days ago

I’ve started using Qobuz which is not USA owned and has not sponsored Trump (like Spotify which granted is not USA). It has been ok!

[-] hardtrip@lemmy.ml 8 points 2 days ago

Been alternating between Deezer and Qobuz and it’s hard picking between the two. Deezer has basically the same library as Spotify while Qobuz is missing notable classics like Cornelius and etc. But Qobuz UI and sound quality is so much better.

[-] Zorsith 8 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Been using Tidal for a while myself, tbh its not great. Music quality and selection are fine, the UI is just... not there. Really basic music player things like setting things to shuffle or loop by default or on an individual playlist basis just don't exist, its solely a global on/off setting.

[-] chromeleon@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

Same here. You literally can't keep the 'loop' function on in the mobile app; you have to turn it on every time. I have to believe most people want to loop their playlists by default. Just dumb.

[-] Zorsith 3 points 2 days ago

Similarly, while i do want to shuffle most of my playlists, there are albums (mostly pink floyd) i do not want to shuffle

[-] CouldntCareBear@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 days ago

I moved from Spotify to Tidal and am very happy with it. Much better sound quality, good recommendation algorithms, bigger catalogue, pay artists much better. I like it.

Plus they don't offer shitty content like right wing or adult podcasts or lets-play videos so I can let my kids use it without having to monitor it so much.

[-] A_norny_mousse@feddit.org 1 points 1 day ago

what other better alternatives are out there?

https://youtu.be/LQRtKD4gx1k stolen from another comment here. Very interesting breakdown of why Spotify sucks and comparison to other services.

[-] Lighttrails@sh.itjust.works 15 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

WOO!

Man I love this band. Based AF

[-] Kyrgizion@lemmy.world 12 points 2 days ago

I must be one of the only millennials to never use Spotify. I used Deezer for a while because I got that for free for year with a Samsung phone many years ago. I still have boxes full of actual CD's in the basement...

[-] foggianism@lemmy.world 2 points 18 hours ago

I still burn CD's to listen to them in my 2009 car.

[-] A_norny_mousse@feddit.org 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Me neither. Everyone around me does, sharing playlists like it's a new standard, it drives me mad.

You transfered your CDs to a computer, right?

[-] Kyrgizion@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

I did, but I recently lost the disk it was all on. It was one of six connected drives during a system upgrade and of course it was the only one to be damaged. I'll have to find time to rip all of them again at some point.

[-] bradboimler@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago

I have never used Spotify

[-] PraiseTheSoup@midwest.social 3 points 2 days ago

I specifically use a phone that still supports MicroSD because I have 147gb of music in FLAC format that I ripped myself from my CD collection that I keep on my phone. The only music streaming I've ever used is free trials of Amazon music and tidal and I thought they both sucked.

Funny thing is, I'm in need of a new phone and there are so few options that accept an SD card that I was actually considering ditching my music collection for Spotify after all these years. I've also noticed that for some reason US versions of phones always have way less storage than their global counterparts. What's up with that.

[-] A_norny_mousse@feddit.org 1 points 1 day ago

I run my own Jellyfin instance ;)

Server costs: 7€/month (and it does much more than just Jellyfin)

[-] BananaIsABerry@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 day ago

For shame. I know lemmy isn't the place to support this opinion but I do not want another streaming subscription.

Maybe I'll just have to take their advice and "bootleg it".

[-] throbbing_banjo@lemmy.world 4 points 13 hours ago

Right? The band makes a great point and fuck Spotify and everything, but they expect things to be slightly less convenient for me? What absolute monsters, I'm going to side with the tech bros on this one.

/s obviously

[-] BananaIsABerry@lemmy.zip 1 points 6 hours ago

Yawn. Expected this sort of boring no nuance response. Lemmy really is reddit 2.0

Sure man, let me go pay another $15/month for the other streaming services that have absolutely no morale failings among their executive employees. Which one is that again?

[-] paraphrand@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

They will be trapped on YouTube tho. Should something prompt them to consider leaving that platform too.

this post was submitted on 26 Jul 2025
560 points (100.0% liked)

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