this post was submitted on 07 Sep 2023
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Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ

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[–] stagen 65 points 1 year ago (5 children)

I’ve never used the free tier on Spotify and I don’t understand how anyone can. The ads alone would make me throw off my headset in disgust. So yeah, not going to affect me, and I do enjoy reading the lyrics a lot.

That said, I am experimenting with swapping over to Apple Music because I feel Spotify has become too expensive.

[–] bblfrnz@beehaw.org 17 points 1 year ago (8 children)

The ads alone would make me throw off my headset in disgust.

For a mobile, there is a modded apk,I've never heard ads there. For a PC, web player in Firefox with uBlock Origin, there are no ads at all there. The same goes for Tidal, I've never paid for these apps.

[–] hunt4peas@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)
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[–] rockhandle@lemm.ee 13 points 1 year ago

With xManager, the free tier comes quite close to premium. No ads, play whatever music you like. The only issues are lower sound quality & no downloads, which are really non-issues since you can just find other sources to download the music from, at flac quality

[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 9 points 1 year ago (4 children)

The ads aren't even for anything. It was just really patronising ads for Spotify Premium.

Their business model is genuinely to just annoy you into paying.

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[–] FfaerieOxide@kbin.social 63 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Do the people who wrote those lyrics get a cut of Spotify gatekeeping them?

[–] sparky678348@lemm.ee 21 points 1 year ago (32 children)

Spotify purchases their lyrics from Musixmatch

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[–] kworpy@lemm.ee 51 points 1 year ago (6 children)

I just love watching everyone freak out about Spotify's shitty business practices while I'm casually looping YouTube videos with an adblocker.

[–] DaDragon@kbin.social 45 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Eh, I switched to Spotify last year (++, of course) and there’s a lot to be said in favour of the Spotify algorithm when it comes to music recommendations, as opposed to YouTube.

[–] abbadon420@lemm.ee 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This. You get actual bang for your buck

[–] UrPartnerInCrime@sh.itjust.works 10 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Anyone who uses spotify just to listen to their own music isn't using spotify correctly.

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[–] Pulp@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 1 year ago

I have gotten good recommendations from both but of course Spotify more often

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[–] crab@monero.town 23 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (9 children)

YouTube sound quality is poor, and 99% of your bandwidth being devoted to video is wasteful. Just use SoundCloud or something. Better yet revanced patched YT music or xmanager Spotify.

Edit: or better yet vimusic

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[–] Blizzard@lemmy.zip 43 points 1 year ago (2 children)

To be fair, Spotify is unsuable without premium.

[–] Kir@feddit.it 36 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Spotify is unusable without ~~premium~~ Xmanager

[–] JCreazy@midwest.social 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Is what someone would say if they didn't know any better.

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[–] lud@lemm.ee 31 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It does make sense though since Spotify has to pay musixmatch for the service.

[–] wecalledhimmavis@beehaw.org 35 points 1 year ago (1 children)

who crowdsource a heap of their lyrics, paying a pittance to their curators 🙄

[–] lud@lemm.ee 7 points 1 year ago

That's true. But to be fair, I have added one song and synced a few. I didn't do it because I wanted pay, I did it because I wanted the song's lyrics to be on Spotify and on the app.

They built a service and people seem to like it, so I don't mind.

[–] unfnknblvbl@beehaw.org 27 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

As a Spotify Artist, I bet I don't even see a single hundredth of a penny for somebody paying extra for the lyrics, either...

And even if Spotify did pay out extra for lyrics, I'm sure they'd find a way to screw my band out of royalties like they currently are anyway.

[–] XYZinferno@lemmy.basedcount.com 20 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Music is one of the easiest things to pirate, so much so that I often forget me downloading flacs of the songs I listen to is supposed to be a no-no

Between a flac playing app (Musicolet on Android and MusicBee on PC) as well as YT Music Revanced, things go smoothly

[–] ArcRay@lemmy.dbzer0.com 15 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The only reason I don't pirate music is because of discovery. I haven't found a good way to find new music without using a streaming service. And then, I'm already using a streaming service, so why bother.

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[–] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 20 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Even then you might not see them. I've noticed recently that a ton of songs that used to have the lyrics attached no longer show the lyrics or have the button to show them. And I do have premium.

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[–] can@sh.itjust.works 17 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (32 children)

Why do people use Spotify still? Momentum?

Edited for clarity, I'm not saying music streaming I'm specifically referring to getting it from one company.

Whose CEO heavily invests in military AI

And pays artists' (and of course labels) the least out of their competitors?

[–] Mordachai_Shedbacon@lemm.ee 36 points 1 year ago (51 children)

It's convenient. It's where all my playlists are... that said, I'm open to alternatives?

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[–] BraveSirZaphod@kbin.social 35 points 1 year ago (7 children)

I don't get why anyone would use the free tier - not being able to choose songs would actually drive me insane, let alone the ads - but $11 monthly for essentially all the music anyone could ever want, plus solid playlists and recommendations, is a perfectly good value for me. Admittedly, I listen to music all the time and it's a pretty big part of my life, so it's an easy sell.

I guess the free tier is still an improvement over radio, but regardless, producing and distributing music has costs, and I'm more than happy to pay for it. Given that Spotify isn't even profitable, having lost about a billion dollars last year, I'm not sure how long this situation will last, but for the time being, I really don't mind it.

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[–] mounderfod@lemmy.sdf.org 13 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Soulseek is still around ;)

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[–] GeekFTW@kbin.social 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Still working for me with just the basic bitch plan on the web/desktop.

That being said: Fuck you Spotify lol

Edit: fuck GadolElohai and CybranM too ya low expectation having downvoting motherfuckers lol

[–] darkl1nk@lemmy.ml 10 points 1 year ago

Recently ditched subscription services because of non-stop price hikes. Now I'm on Navidrome with a VPS and using Ultrasonic on my Android for mobile and Android Auto listening. For music, I turn to good old Soulseek and Telegram bots.

Never going back. The control and savings make it all worth it.

[–] MrBusinessMan@lemm.ee 8 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Solid business decision by Spotify here, I support this move. I’ll probably switch over to them from YouTube music.

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I've been using Qobuz. Sure it's still paid, but I can buy downloads for any of the music on there. Same with Bandcamp. I've been buying one album every paycheck and putting them on my storage blocks, then putting them on my media player and phone. I support my favorite bands, and get to keep something in return. On top of all this, I hunt down CDs. I've got a massive physical music collection, and it's nice.

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