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Spotify Is Social Media Now? (newsroom.spotify.com)
submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by sunstoned@lemmus.org to c/music@lemmy.world

I've done it. I've finally reached my "old man yells at cloud" moment. Why, why, WHY is Spotify adding features straight out of the social media playbook?

Anybody have recommendations for alternatives?

In my head there's:

~~YouTube music~~ (google, gross)

~~Apple music~~ (no way they're not on a similar trajectory)

~~Bandcamp~~ (limited, but at least bands see some money from it)

~~SoundCloud~~ (weird reputation, though haven't come back around to it in a good 10 years)

Tidal maybe? Would love to hear some recommendations.

Edit: I neglected to mention why I don't like the messaging feature. I've never used it, yet with a few of my friends there are already dozens of song exchanges in the thread. It's clear that spotify has been using user-specific links for a while now to track who sends what to who. That's a pretty clear anti-feature for me, and is enough to make me jump ship.

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[-] moonburster@lemmy.world 4 points 5 days ago

Honestly, Apple Music is not that bad. Tried to love tidal but the app just really sucks with frequent crashes and terrible ui.

Thus far Apple Music feels like old apple playing the streaming game and I have yet to find enshitified features being added. Even the recommendations are more in line with my expectations, think of artists with new or upcoming releases that the app knows you’ve been listening too.

Ui wise I still miss Spotify, it WAS just better. But it’s going further from that everyday. Apple Music also has flac quality if that interests you and you don’t have to pay extra for it. In terms of paying artists, tidal still takes the crown and apple is second.

[-] NatakuNox@lemmy.world 5 points 6 days ago

It's because we live in late stage capitalism. Our systems require infinite growth, so when Spotify tries to grow in an over saturated market. How else can they increase profits? Throw shit from all over the place to see what works. This issue is why every company jumped on the Ai bandwagon because it was the first real leap in a Market since the internet. Problem is 51% of all money spent in America was spent by the top 10% of the population. That top 10% only needs one Spotify subscription per person. The bottom 90% aren't going to waste money anymore on subscription services.

[-] Freaky@lemmy.world 4 points 6 days ago

Try Metrolist for android. I don't know what is available for pc in this manner. And if you're one of the "If buying isn't owning, then pirating isn't stealing" people, then there's option to save the mp3 files from both Spotify's and Deezer's database. Any telegram bot titling this kinda thing will do the job.

[-] MichaelHawkinSnider@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago

Thanks for the recommendation! I explored the app (hopefully this is the project you were referring to), and I couldn't find an option to connect to Spotify to save MP3s. Can you elaborate or point me in the right direction?

[-] Freaky@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Yes. This is the one.

And for the telegram one, go to the searchbar and type : @DeezerMusicBot , then in the chat menu, /start the bot. Choose simple "search" and it'll appear in inline mode. Then type any song title and wait 3-4 seconds for it to appear. You can type Artist's name additionally if the song title is too much common.

After you make the bot appear in inline mode for the fist time in its own inbox, then go to the "Saved Messages" section of telegram and just type @

It should pop up the option to choose the entire bot. If it doesn't, simply continue further writing as shown in the picture and you're good to go.

[-] Entertainmeonly 2 points 5 days ago

Never left Pandora. Still works exactly like i set it up. Damn, 15years ago?

[-] arsCynic@lemmy.ml 2 points 6 days ago

And Duolingo now has chess. What a complete joke; both those corporations and the people using everything uncritically.

[-] mcforest@feddit.org 34 points 1 week ago

Buying and ripping CDs is my way to go. Completely without social media features.

[-] aeronmelon@lemmy.world 18 points 1 week ago

The social aspect is talking to the cashier.

[-] victorz@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago
[-] Dave@lemmy.nz 11 points 1 week ago
[-] victorz@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

What even...

[-] Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 week ago

That’s so much effort and clutter when you can just download MP3s or FLACs from the web.

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[-] 6nk06@sh.itjust.works 22 points 1 week ago

Bandcamp because you discover music since albums are so cheap.

Qobuz is good IMHO. I've heard good things about Tidal too.

[-] Flatfire@lemmy.ca 2 points 5 days ago

Seconding Qobuz. Feels a lot like the best of all of them. Streaming, massive library that captured most of my existing Spotify saved, and I can actually buy music to keep as well when I want an album

[-] hypnicjerk@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago

big fan of qobuz, the only reason i ever dabbled in spotify was to make sharing links easy

[-] compostgoblin 4 points 1 week ago

I left Spotify for TIDAL a couple months ago. No complaints here!

[-] realitista@lemmus.org 17 points 1 week ago

I'm so glad I still just buy and maintain my own local music library.

[-] Shayeta@feddit.org 8 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Same, but I still want some form of a recommendation engine. I also want to discover new music.

[-] lemmyknow@lemmy.today 1 points 6 days ago
[-] Dojan@pawb.social 1 points 5 days ago

I have ListenBrainz hooked up to my Navidrome server. Haven't used it much though, find it a bit confusing.

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[-] SnotFlickerman 12 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Bandcamp + Yar har fiddle dee dee + Jellyfin or Plex.

[-] abfarid@startrek.website 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

For music something like Navidrome is much better, IMO. But you could easily host it in addition to the former two, not instead.

Oh, and you can combine the subscription to Tidal with yar har by umm... permanently caching the songs offline by means of 3rd party tools. It might seem pointless at first glance, but having the music stored on your server ensures you'll keep having it, while you still can spontaneously explore new stuff on Tidal.

[-] yggstyle@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

I'd steer away from Plex. Their devs have clearly been headed in the wrong direction. Enshittification inbound.

Obligatory I miss what.cd 🥲

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Tidal is great as far as streaming services go in general.

[-] victorz@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

I hear people saying Tidal is unethical because of where its finding is coming from, and the ties its investors have.

Qobuz seems to be the shit as the next alternative.

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[-] e8d79@discuss.tchncs.de 11 points 1 week ago

I recently cancelled spotify and switched to a selfhosted navidrome server to stream my personal music collection.

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[-] cabbage@piefed.social 9 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I'm using Qobuz for music streaming. It's alright.

Last time I checked they pay artists more than the competition, they curate playlists and editorial content rather than pushing AI left and right, and my experience is generally good.

Minus points for lacking API and native Linux client. On desktop Linux the web app works well.

[-] jagermo@feddit.org 8 points 1 week ago

Deezer is my streamer of choice, nearly identical with artists, OK discovery. Premium includes high def and you can currently stream to multiple devices, like, say, play on sonos for the Kids and listen to yourself without one device stopping

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[-] roserose56@lemmy.zip 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Its funny how people are still using Spotify when other services exist. But yea people, complain about Spotify and it's features.

Edit: if you don't like something quit it, don't complain. Companies don't understand until numbers start dropping.

[-] Jarix@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

I went to Spotify from Tidal because Tidal just didn't have the music I wanted to listen to.

I can't see myself wording until there's is a service that just has all music that I'm able to find through Spotify. Sad but true.

[-] KuroiKaze@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago

I went to YouTube music because I found spotify's library way too limiting

[-] some_kind_of_guy@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago

It's been a few years since, but the wholesale merging of music as a category with the entirety of YouTube really gets in my craw. Like, thanks, but I don't need or want "8 hours of AI-generated lo-fi chill beats for work and studying by xXx-alphachad69420-xXx" showing up when I'm looking for legitimate art to listen to.

[-] KuroiKaze@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago

That doesn't seem to happen to me on the yt music app ever so idk

[-] Jarix@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago

I looked at it but at the time, Spotify wasn't as shit as it is today as a company. I just don't want to give Google my money anymore either.

[-] Jakeroxs@sh.itjust.works 1 points 6 days ago

Sadly it's my last remaining payment to Google, hard to beat yt music and yt premium in one package when I use both services so heavily.

[-] Jarix@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago

I get it. We all just need a better alternative. I'm not holding my breath though

[-] roserose56@lemmy.zip 2 points 6 days ago

Deezer, qobuz, bandcamp and goes on.

[-] Jarix@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Never heard of qobuz thanks, I'll check it out, the others also don't have the same selection for me. Had a few months of free Deezer when I bought some noise cancelling headphones and they were okay, but still too many of my playlists (there is a tool I forget the name of they helps move/recreate playlists between services) and entirely too many of my lists had unavailable artists or versions of songs

I really do wish my country would just create a repository of the Arts and then collect money from all the leeches to compensate the artists so we can just enjoy our preferred art without needingd to feed the businesses that crush innovation and artists rights

[-] fdnomad@programming.dev 6 points 1 week ago

I like streaming music, I dont need to own it, but I have been struggling to find a good music streaming service.

I used Spotify for years but the amount of garbage they keep adding made me cancel my subscription. The last straw was when "smart shuffle" kept automatically turning itself back on.

First I switched to YouTube Music but the user experience is honestly trash and I moved on pretty quickly. The separation between video and music service was ridiculously inconsistent.

I used Tidal for a few months and I appreciated the simple UI. However, the recommendations are insanely bad. Not once have I found a new, good track on the daily mix to add to my library, it was driving me crazy.

I started using Qobuz only a few weeks ago. The track radio is honestly pretty bad so far. I start the radio on a lofi track and start hearing video game ambience noises 5 tracks later. Literally bird sounds with whitenoise from an OST album. I havent tried the daily/weekly queue a lot yet, but I hope its decent because I dont know what to try next.

I wish Spotify hadn't entshittified, it had the best recommendations/radios by far but its just not usable for me anymore.

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[-] BigBananaDealer@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

spotify started with more social media feel

[-] marighost@piefed.social 5 points 1 week ago

I'm content with tidal for now. I mainly listen to music on my desktop, and I like that it's just music. No podcasts or things I don't want to see.

[-] skisnow@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 week ago

Winamp died because the company that acquired it tried to turn it into an everything app.

[-] DmMacniel@feddit.org 4 points 1 week ago

Winamp died for our sins :(

[-] WilhelmStroker@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

Misread that as winamp died for our skins.

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[-] ABetterTomorrow@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 week ago

Spotify customers created a bigger evil

[-] waddle_dee@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

So, I'm a bit of an enigma, so take my recommendation with a grain of salt. I use Tidal. It does the best, out of all my criteria.

    1. Friendly privacy policy. It's very straight forward, and from what my lawyer friend said, it's pretty solid.
    1. Hi def streaming. It's a must for me, as I have some nice cans and speakers I wanna listen through.
    1. Payout to artists. Although they don't pay as much as Qobuz, they pay a substantial amount relatively, and the aforementioned points make up for the rest.
    1. Ease of use. The app is really great and it's easy to use and I find that after curating my music for awhile, I get solid recommendations and the radio stations always hit well. Although, I do wish there was more variety in the stations. Sometimes, it plays the same tracks across stations.

All in all, I'm very happy with Tidal and I don't think I'm switching anytime soon.

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this post was submitted on 29 Sep 2025
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