I’m Breaking Up With Spotify… Here’s Why

Spotify has been going down the tubes, well it wasn’t that great in the first place (especially for artists!). I’ve always been of the belief that art is all about the soul and the human touch, and if anything should be automated it’s mundane and tedious tasks so it can give people the freedom to create. Art and creativity is what makes life worth living. I’m against AI art and I look down upon companies and influencers that actively promote “AI art”.

Now I know that a lot of traditionally minded people in the classic rock fandom will be like why would you use a streaming service, just buy the albums, physical media is the best! And I agree, physical media is great. I’ve bought records in the past. There’s really nothing like having an album on vinyl, but if you’re someone who has moved a lot or is always on the go, it’s not practical to bring a bunch of CDs with you. You could get an MP3 player and rip the CDs to your computer and put the audio files on the MP3 player and connect it to your car or bring it with you on a walk, but it’s nowhere near as frictionless as streaming. Another thing I love about streaming is the ability to discover new music and as a blogger this is important to me. I like being able to search a streaming service’s library and find exactly what I want to listen to. I also love making playlists and my MacBook doesn’t have a CD drive (last laptop I bought with a DVD/CD drive was in 2011 and I bought it for university and I think my parents still have it) and I don’t feel like daisy chaining one to my computer to make mixtapes. I already think having to use an adapter for USB-A things like a mouse, keyboard, or mic is annoying enough!

This blog post isn’t to shame people who use Spotify, but it’s to get you thinking about whether or not your should continue supporting an unethical streaming platform. Obviously there’s no ethical consumption under capitalism, but this doesn’t mean throw in the towel and stop caring.

Why I’m done with Spotify and why I’ve cancelled my subscription:

• They don’t properly compensate artists. You know, the reason people subscribe to music streaming services in the first place. Instead the profits go to the CEO Daniel Ek and shareholders. I’d rather my money go to hardworking artists than a billionaire CEO. Obviously buying music directly from artists (especially on Bandcamp Fridays), buying their merch, and going to their gigs is going to be the best way to support your favourite artists, but I can’t always buy merch or go to gigs and I still need to buy a record player (I’ll get around to it someday!).
• To increase profits for shareholders and the CEO, Spotify have laid off a lot of their staff, replacing them with AI. AI doesn’t need a salary, annual leave, or a pension. In recent years their Spotify Wrapped year in review feature has been lacklustre and playlists lately have been boring and have no human touch at all. I’m so sad because for me and many other music enthusiasts, Spotify Wrapped is like our Oscars or our Met Gala. I always loved seeing others’ Spotify Wrapped! I’d appreciate some human curation, like if you’re going to keep a lot of money in the company, invest it in creating a great experience. Also Spotify have been pushing “AI music” and that’s not what I want to hear! Recently there was an AI song called “The Corridor Learns My Name” that was put on Syd Barrett’s page and I was like what is this? It’s so uncanny valley and sounds like a crappy, weird sounding version of the Allah Las. If this were real, wouldn’t the official social media channels be shouting about it?

And here’s the straw that broke the camel’s back, ICE ads and War:

• If you’re a Spotify Premium subscriber, you may not have known this, but Spotify have been running recruitment ads for ICE in the US, yup those fascists! As XTC once sang, “No Thugs In Our House”! Don’t take money from fascists and don’t spread fascist messages. It’s not that hard! I know that Spotify have the “best” free tier of all the music streaming services. There’s Deezer, but their major shareholders include Russian Pro-Israel oligarch Len Blavatnik (owner of Access Industries) and Saudi billionaire and House of Saud royal Al Waleed bin Talal Al Saud. So by using Deezer, you’re indirectly supporting apartheid in Israel and institutionalised sexism, homophobia, and transphobia in Saudi Arabia.
• Spotify CEO Daniel Ek has invested $700 million in an AI drone weapons startup called Helsing. He is the chairman of Helsing. I’ve always been very anti-war, even before I became a socialist. That doesn’t sit right with me, especially because a streaming service is a discretionary expense, it’s not something I *need* to live, and because there are other options out there that don’t do this crap! Be aware that if you’re using Spotify, some of that money is going towards the development of AI drone weapons used by the military.

I’m the child of a Venezuelan immigrant and I’m an immigrant myself, moving from the US to the UK (via Ireland). While I am in a relatively privileged position as I am not an ESL speaker and Americans don’t really experience much xenophobia here, I stand in solidarity with fellow immigrants and none of us are free until all of us are free. If you know your Latin American history, you’ll know that the US has done a lot of imperialism in Latin America, which has caused a lot of people to flee their homes. Just a thought: if you want fewer refugees, how about stop imperialism and regime change wars, which are major contributors to climate change (which also creates many refugees)! The US needs to stop acting like Team America: World Police, it’s satire, not an instruction manual!

Given all of this, I cannot in good conscience use Spotify anymore and I have no plans of going back because there’s a lot of choice in music streaming services and it’s so easy to move playlists over with services like Soundiiz or Tune My Music. Of course I’m not going to tell you what to do, but I want to present the information so you can make the most informed decision.

I understand artists gotta do what they gotta do (the economy sucks, like this is worse than 2008, at least Subway had the $5 footlong back then) so I’m not faulting any musician for keeping their music on Spotify or Deezer, but I will say this movement to boycott Spotify should grow because only then will things change. Corporations don’t have any morals for better or worse, all they care about is making money. That’s why I don’t applaud too loudly about corporations doing stuff for Pride, it’s pinkwashing. You can’t control what billionaires do, but you can vote with your wallet and make choices that are more ethical.

And I recommend when you cancel Spotify that you let them know about the ICE recruitment ads and Ek’s investment in AI drone weapons. Of course be polite, customer service people don’t control what ads get aired and what the CEO’s investments are, but most companies keep track of reasons behind customer attrition. I’ve worked in a corporate environment and this was definitely the case at my old job.

Some people think you should delete your Spotify account, but I’d argue for artists, they should keep it up and put a message up on their page about why their music is no longer on Spotify like garage/surf rock band The Routes have (check out my interview with Chris Jack from The Routes and review of their gig here). It’s smart because if someone searches you on Spotify, they’ll see why you’re not on there and while they may not change their mind straight away, it might plant a seed and get them thinking:

For those using screen readers, the text is in the alt text.

It would be huge if giants in the music industry start doing this. Imagine if Taylor Swift did this (she totally wouldn’t though) or Beyonce or Chappell Roan or Sabrina Carpenter or Billie Eilish. Any musician with a loyal, dedicated fanbase! Some musicians like Lorde and Bjork have stopped streaming their music in Israel, a good first step, but not enough. To be fair, I’m not sure what control big musicians have over their catalogue and distribution, but if they can pull their music from a certain country, I don’t see why they can’t pull it from an entire service. I don’t know anything about the business side of things, so I’d love to hear what musician friends of mine have to say!

The biggest musician so far that I’ve heard of that have pulled their music from Spotify are King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. There are some more artists on this list, but I haven’t heard of them. Let’s make this list bigger! Go and support these artists!

Boycotts have worked in the past when they’re done strategically and when the messaging is clear.

What’s the best alternative to Spotify? Enter Qobuz!

Absolutely not a sponsored post, I’m just a music enjoyer like you and I like to find better ways to support musicians than Spotify and YouTube. I wish Qobuz were paying me to promote them lol!

I looked through all the options and I’ve come to the conclusion that the best of the bunch is Qobuz, as said by anti-consumerist account Cut Off The Spigot on Instagram. This account is a great resource that shares more ethical alternatives to various shops and services, mainly avoiding the megacorps like Amazon and Walmart, but really there’s a lot of videos here on finding great swaps for the things you buy and consume. You can find their video below and see why Qobuz is a no-brainer!

It’s also ridiculously easy to migrate your playlists. They’ve partnered with Soundiiz so you can transfer your playlists and saved songs/artists in one go for free! As Buddy Holly once sang, “it’s so easy!”

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Why Qobuz kicks Spotify’s butt:

• Better sound quality: My hearing is kinda crap, but I can definitely tell that it sounds way better. Lots of music is available in Hi-Res Audio and will sound great on a stereo or headphones.
• Better pay for artists: Qobuz pays artists more than any other streaming service, with each stream being 1-2 cents as opposed to tiny tiny fractions of a cent.
• You can buy music: You want to own digital copies of the music that you can keep? Well, you can with Qobuz.
• Human curation: Qobuz has lots of playlists and they’re curated by staff.
• Better algorithm: I found Spotify’s algorithm to be really samey and suggesting stuff I already listen to. I find that Qobuz is better for discovering music you may not have heard before.

All of this and for not much more than Spotify? Sign me up! There’s also a really good student discount, so any university students reading this, check it out!

One criticism I have is that the UI isn’t the most intuitive, but it’s one of those things you just get used to the more you use it. A small price to pay in the grand scheme of things. At least I feel my conscience is a lot cleaner. I also wish there were music videos and lyrics like Spotify has (although in my experience the lyrics aren’t always accurate), but maybe that’s a feature they could add in the future. Not a dealbreaker though! Fingers crossed!

The other annoying thing is just like on Spotify, you’ll sometimes get songs made by artists and bands with the same name mixed in there. For example, most of the music I listen to is there, except for one of my favourite bands, the 1980s Soviet rock band Kino. I go to the page for Kino and what are all these artists who are clearly not Viktor Tsoi doing here? I guess this means I’ll have to get some Kino vinyl. This is why physical media is so important.

Me @ all these artists who are clearly not Viktor Tsoi’s Kino.

Anyway, that’s my take on why you should cancel your Spotify Premium subscription, or if you’re using the free version, to stop using Spotify.

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