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Spotify to raise prices in September (lemmy.relayeasy.com)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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I have got to admit I canned Spotify subs years ago - but how are they managing to grow their subscriber base whn it is now going to be £11.99 in the UK? That is way, way too high for what it offers...

https://www.gbnews.com/tech/spotify-price-rise

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[–] 63 points 1 year ago (20 children)

Just saying; cancelling Spotify and changing to Qobuz takes five minutes. Sound quality is amazingly better, the curated recommendations are done by human beings that love music, and 'just works' with everything that Spotify does. (For us, anyway.) It's French, rather than Norwegian-American like Tidal is, if you're trying to stop spending money on everything US at the moment, too.

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  • [–] 13 points 1 year ago

    I also just switched to Qobuz. I like to listen to albums and playlists. The UI is more minimal than Spotify which I enjoy. I like the fact it's not constantly trying to push new things like podcasts, concerts etc. on me. I just want to listen to music and pay the artists for it!

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  • [–] 22 points 1 year ago (7 children)

    They don't have any other recommendations apart from those human made ones though? Couldn't find what I wanted.

    The UI is awful and their artist pages are normally blank for indy artists.

    The migration is pretty seamless though, and they apparently pay their artists way better.

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  • [–] 10 points 1 year ago (6 children)

    They have the human made ones, they have the "artist radio" function that plays songs similar to a band you like, they have a weekly top 30 based on stuff you've been listening to. The headline 'albums of the week' are based on what they like, which I don't think is unfair - I've really enjoyed some of them.

    I listen to a lot of metal and electronic, and I've always found the descriptions excellent - usually several paragraphs even for the most obscure of bands. Was well impressed that they had Lambrini Girls as one of their 'albums of the week', and their album at studio quality. Not that that's essential for punk. Admittedly I don't listen to a lot of indy, but they've always had what I've wanted to listen to.

    My main complaint about the UX is that it's nearly identical to Spotify, but I suppose there's not much else you can do. Something particular about it that you dislike?

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

    Thanks for the long reply.

    Did not know the radio function existed. On mobile at least I can't find it on the artists page? I have to go into the ... Menu on a track in a playlist?

    I listen to a lot of instrumental stuff while working, so I may be going too indy? Someone like soundcriters should should have something on their page?

    https://open.qobuz.com/artist/5003476

    I dislike that you have to go to a playlists page to play it in shuffle, you can't do it from the playlists menu.

    Double clicking should play a track but doesn't.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (4 children)

    At my PC now, where the radio option doesn't seem to exist at all!?!

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  • [–] 7 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    I'm on Tidal right now and currently considering the switch to Qobuz. There's no official (or unofficial) Linux client which is kind of a bummer. Tidal at least has a half-decent unofficial one...

    Yeah, I could just use the web player or strawberry but I just prefer having a dedicated app.

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  • [–] 7 points 1 year ago*

    As much I despise Spotify, I'm trying out Qobuz and it's just not really it.

    No folder organisation for playlists or albums.

    No Linux application.

    No lyrics.

    No support for smart speakers.

    No information linking to artist tours and merch.

    No dedicated classical music app.

    Generally lacking when it comes to non western artists.

    Prides itself on providing high quality music, yet still only has lower quality masters for some artists compared to Apple Music, Tidal, and even Spotify.

    I want to love it, like the way it loves and respects the music industry, with it's special magazine etc, but it's just not it.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

    For those using spofity connect: tidal has "tidal connect" as well, which is identical and exactly as supported. Qobuz unfortunately lacks this feature, to my knowledge. Correction: Qobuz has released "Qobuz connect"! I don't know how widely supported it is vs. Tidal connect, though; iFi and Cambridge audio most notably seem to be missing, according to this list.

    I personally also prefer the tidal algo to Spotify and qobuz, but that is a matter of preference.

    It's quite easy to download Tidal content on any device w/o the app as well—for educational purposes, of course.

    For some, Tidal may be a better alternative. I've been quite happy with it. Others may prefer Qobuz.

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    • [+] 95 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (24 children)
    [deleted]
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  • [–] 39 points 1 year ago (15 children)

    I guess some people are, as long as it’s a good balance of convenience and price. Ages ago, Napster, Kazaa and DC++ were considered more convenient than buying music. I guess torrents are used for that these days.

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  • [–] 25 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (10 children)

    There's a P2P app from the same era as KaZaA, originally released the same year (2001), that's still in active use today: Soulseek. It's a great way to find obscure music, some of which isn't on streaming services and is extremely difficult to obtain otherwise.

    Usenet is good for less popular stuff too. Torrents die once the last seed is gone, but some Usenet providers have over 10 years retention, and you always get full speeds over an encrypted connection with no uploading required.

    Edit: Support artists where possible, but sometimes there's music that's impossible to find, and that's when these services come in handy.

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  • [–] 7 points 1 year ago (9 children)

    Do I need an invite for usenet?

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  • [–] [S] 9 points 1 year ago (8 children)

    now I don't want to be that person but I'd like to give artists some money somehow. Like I dislike AI as it rips people off - there is a (difficult) middle line to tread

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  • [–] 14 points 1 year ago* (6 children)

    The problem is there's some 90s albums I can't find anywhere - not on Discogs, not on eBay, not on Marketplace. The record labels are usually long gone. But they're on Soulseek. I'm not sure what else to do to get them.

    There's also things like DJ sets/mixes that were never sold, only ever distributed online for free.

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  • [–] 7 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    And that Judas priest CD in the cellar somewhere, sometimes you have paid the artist already so soulseek comes in handy.

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  • [–] [S] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Of course... I mean you don't want them coming around your place to see you do you (Judas Priest that is)

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago* (3 children)

    I work a desk job. I cant put pirated music on my work computer or ill get fired. Only real option is a pay service.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    I don’t like to bring my personal stuff on my work computer, but I can use my phone for all that stuff instead. You could use a BT speaker to blast pirate metal in the office.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    I thought about using my phone but I dont have unlimited data on my phone. I also dont have unlimited data at home so id run my phone and internet down faster. Phone is the real issue as its not much cell data at all per month.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    An offline solution exists too, but then you would need to sync a few gigabytes of mp3 files on your phone. Not quite as convenient, but at least it wouldn’t use any mobile data. Actually, it’s still a whole lot nicer than dragging a CD player and a few discs with you. If you’re into retro, you totally can get CDs too…

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  • [–] 15 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    Firefox & ublock and there are no publicities.

    My 'ol android apk doesn't work any more thoug... and can't find a new one (Hint hint, blink blink)

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    I've been using a cracked yt music since the Spotify crackdown. I miss my playlists often :^(

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    [–] 46 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

    Third one in a little over two years. They say it's to keep up with inflation as if they're a retail store operating on razor thin margins and people accept that. Meanwhile, they're donating to fascist political parties and shafting artists by leveraging loopholes to pay out fewer royalties.

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    [–] 33 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    Friendly reminder that your “legally acquired” library of FLAC files never raises its subscription prices!

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    • [–] 26 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    spotify pays me half a cent per stream, the profit margins for them must be fucking insane. and the music sounds like shit. I'd much rather people pirate it than support these leeches

    if you want to support artists you like, buy the music, ideally on bandcamp. if you do have to steam it, Deezer at the very least won't vandalize the audio

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    • [–] 26 points 1 year ago

    spotify lost me as a customer as soon as I learned that they gifted 150k to Trump for his inaugaration party

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    [–] 26 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Just leaving this here from the excellent !PurchaseWithPurpose@lemmy.world

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    • [–] 25 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    My main beef with spotify is their attempt to privatize and monopolize podcasting.

    Spotify offers audio hosting and a large userbase, but does not provide rss. A few people I like are trapped in this, and I have no way to listen to their shows apart from using spotify. They refuse to understand that this is an issue, just like youtubers are ok with lock-in.

    Podcasting infrastructure is not monopolized yet, like video is. It is even bigger problem for me than underpayid artists.

    So boycotting, and if you undersrand that, you should too.

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  • [–] 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    The podcasters that you are referring to being "trapped in this" chose to be "trapped". So don't just be upset with Spotify over it.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    I choose to blame platforms for vile intents rather than users for ignorance. I don't see awareness of politics of technology as obligatory for all authors (even less for users), but creators of those platforms know damn well what they are doing.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago

    Meh, their attempts at privatizing podcasting is why I'm mad at spotify, but same token there's been a few podcasters that definitely go to the spotify platform for reasons, some in the monopolized format...

    Since I don't have a spotify, I don't listen to those. I agree with above don't just be upset with spotify, I blame the platform yes, but I also blame the people who got in bed with them.

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    • [–] 24 points 1 year ago (12 children)

    There is a ReVanced version of Spotify, for people who didn't already know. Block ads and get premium features for free: https://revanced.app/

    (There's also YT Music ReVanced)

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  • [–] 12 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    Can't I just go with piracy

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  • [–] 0 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    This is more convenient than piracy.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Having the files locally is more convenient though

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (1 child)

    How is having any song you want being one search away less convenient than having to curate and organize a music collection, and then go digging though folders to find the song you want?

    Look, I've been collecting music since 1998 and even I admit that streaming is a lot more convenient. Only reason why I still collect music is because I am a DJ and don't always have a reliable wifi or data connection at every gig. But even then I've culled the vast majority of 50k+ tunes down to about a 1000 of the best and most popular on the dance floor. Then swap songs in and out as needed. The modern era makes it easy to re-obtain a deleted track, and often in higher quality than I originally ripped it at (I use a spectrum analyzer on my collection to verify).

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    • [–] 24 points 1 year ago (12 children)

    When I got tired of Spotify's shitty practices, I looked into other streaming services that could compare, and honestly I didn't like any other offerings. So I said fuck it, I'll just download everything and play it locally.

    What made the jump easy was a service called Spotidown, I even paid for the ad free version it was so convenient. You literally copy the spotify link for songs and playlists and it let's you download it. There's a couple different services like this, that will make the switch easier.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (5 children)

    Does SpotiDown have a linux version? If not, do you know an alternative?

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (1 child)

    Not that im aware of, sorry. There is a Windows based spotidown software, but no Linux. Spotidown is a web based service normally, so you could definitely use it in Linux. I actually downloaded all my music from it using my phone!

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    For Linux you can use ZSpotify. It runs in the command line, just use a burner account to run as in zspotify because it's against their TOS of course, and might get you kickbanned. It also requires premium, but you only need it for a day at most, in order to run the download. Then you can cancel.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    I've settled for Qobuz. Its discovery features are terrible, but it's basically a music storefront with a streaming library. High-quality, had basically my whole library and I can buy albums directly for download.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Oh I didn't know you could buy music from Qobuz, is it a better system than bandcamp? I've never used either so Im at the perfect time to find a good one.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Both are great, and I think complement eachother nicely. Qobuz mostly focuses on label offered music catalogues, while Bandcamp has always catered to indies. If an artist offers their music through Bandcamp, I still prefer to make my purchases there, but if the artist is signed to a label then it's a good shot Qobuz has it.

    Either service offers the music in the highest quality provided, though lossless versions through Qobuz do tend to be priced a few dollars higher than the regular album.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (1 child)

    I mean, you could just pay the artists for their music.

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  • [–] 16 points 1 year ago

    I do! I go to concerts and buy merch from the artists I listen to, which gives them exponentially more money than the fractions of a penny Spotify gives them. I've paid for Spotify long enough to justify downloading the music I had saved, any future music I want I'll just purchase from Bandcamp or something similar.

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    • [–] 19 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

    Spotify has a become a shit show lately. I don't like that the CEO is supporting a genocidal state, the platform is full of fake AI artists and playlists. Artists aren't getting paid enough. the price hikes and the app just feels so bloated with unnecessary bullshit. Because of this, I switched to self hosting my own music server (Navidrome, and Lidarr) and I use the symphonium app on Android. Really happy with that solution

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    [–] 18 points 1 year ago*

    Tidal seems to be a pretty good alternative.

    Also, you can use some FOSS alternatives like SimpMusic, InnerTune (or some fork), ViMusic (or a fork).

    For PC you can use the FOSS YouTube Music alternative.

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    [–] 15 points 1 year ago

    Well my decision to cancel Spotify last month is already paying off.

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