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[+] 68 points 1 month ago (10 children)
  • [–] 29 points 1 month ago (7 children)

    Even if you do want to use a streaming service rather than buying music directly, Tidal pays something like 3x as much as Spotify per stream. They were also the first major streaming service to support lossless audio (11 years ago!) and the first to take a stance against AI-generated music. They label AI music, block royalties (people that upload AI music don't get paid for it), and let users filter out all AI music.

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  • [–] 24 points 1 month ago (4 children)

    I gave Tidal a shot this year. Lasted about 3 months before the user experience pushed me – go on and scold me – back to Spotify.

    I listen to music in my car a lot which has an aftermarket Android head unit fitted. Within the first week of my trial they revamped the UI, which entailed not being able to add the currently playing song to a playlist UNLESS I leave the player view, go SEARCH the title and select it from the results. That's something I'm definitely NOT doing while driving.

    This in itself would be a dealbreaker for me if it wasn't for Spotify's awful business practices. So I tried to ignore it. But even then, I got nowhere close to the amount of artists and tracks that I discovered each week when on Spotify. I noticed how I listened to music less and less each day because it was either frustrating or meant listening to the same songs over and over.

    I'm actually kind of embarrassed to be back on Spotify because of all the reasons mentioned in this thread (and everywhere else, obviously). But I need music to stay sane, I can't deal with it being such a pain.

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  • [–] 6 points 1 month ago

    I'm actually in basically the exact same situation but trying to stick to Tidal, if only just because I can't go back to not having AI slop songs automatically hidden but I do notice how much better the recommendations are on Spotify whenever I open it again

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  • [–] 4 points 1 month ago

    It’s hard to scold, I think tidal is OK, but there is another… Napster! And it pays even more than tidal, like last I checked it wasn’t even close. But alas, their UX is awful. Awful enough I chose tidal for the time being. :/

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  • [–] 3 points 1 month ago

    Makes sense. Tidal's UI/UX definitely isn't as nice.

    I'm using my Plex server with Plexamp and CDs I've ripped. I don't listen to a lot of newer music, so discovery isn't as important. I use the free version of Google Play Music for discovery sometimes, but there's a huge amount of AI slop.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 month ago

    I used Tidal for about a year but yeah the user experience is quite lacking. I moved to Apple Music as an iPhone user and it’s been a very nice middle ground for me personally. I still buy music and merch to support the artists I love though.

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  • [–] 29 points 1 month ago (3 children)

    Capitalism brings innovation!

    Today we get the entirely fake fairytale meaningless fictitious artificial digital scarcity!

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  • [–] 6 points 1 month ago

    Blame UMG - Spotify have to comply with their demands or they'll lose their license.

    Although... I don't see this as any different from movies coming to the cinema then to paid streaming before coming to free streaming services. Free users contribute significantly less revenue, which isn't great during the initial rush when a new album or movie is released.

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  • [–] 7 points 1 month ago* (1 child)

    Eh. 3 days delay to listen to new music releases isn't the end of the world. Especially if you're doing it for free. Go do something else in the meantime.

    #firstworldproblems

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  • [–] 5 points 1 month ago (9 children)

    Would this be bypassable with Spicetify?

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  • [–] 11 points 1 month ago (7 children)

    It is bypassable by not using Spotify, there are better services (even for free)

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  • [–] 11 points 1 month ago (5 children)

    A list might be helpful in a comment like this.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (3 children)

    Sorry you're right 😭

    It's a piracy sub so I suggest

    • monochrome.tf (open source), it takes its music from legal services so whatever you're listening on Spotify is probably on it. There are mobile apps. It's basically a premium service for free without data stealing. You can rip songs and keep .flac files if you want. The dream, but as it's unofficial it might be a bit less reliable.

    For more trad legal alternatives, there are :

    • Deezer ; basically french Spotify with way better sound quality, there's also a free version which is less restrictive than Spotify's.
    • YouTube Music ; nice but the quality is terrible.
    • Qobuz ; the best (still french) but more expensive, you can also buy drm-free music and keep .flac files.

    The others are more or less the same, still better than Spotify which is a ripoff at this point.

    You should really try Monochrome, and Qobuz if you have the budget (~15€ I think?) :)

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  • [–] 4 points 1 month ago*

    Seems like it would be a marketing/distribution effectiveness loss. People hear of the release, want to check it out, but it's not available to them; the hype falls off. They just lost potential listeners and fans, and wasted marketing/release visibility.

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