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…
Meanwhile the new Seagate 26tb HDD is going for $270
I’ve been downloading my media for over 10 years now and I only have like 2 1/2 Terabytes filled, a 26tb drive could hold most people’s lifetime media collections.
Owning your own storage and files is the only way to ensure you keep access to the media you want.
Seagate
spotify lost me as a customer as soon as I learned that they gifted 150k to Trump for his inaugaration party
Just leaving this here from the excellent !PurchaseWithPurpose@lemmy.world
From that chart Qobuz seems to be the all round best deal. Is there any catch?
I use Qobuz! It works well most the time. And it has a huge library. Some things are not as polished as some of the bigger companies. And there’s a lot of Initial setup to get it working…
That said, I would say it’s a great option. I do wish it had better continuous play options, as sometimes I listen to a playlist, and then it just stops. But that may be part of the learning curve. I’m not really a big “playlists” guy… I’d like to start a radio and have it find similar artists (similar to Pandora 12 years ago) But that doesn’t really seem to be the way companies are going anymore.
I have several Google mini devices (I know, I know. I’m working on it, but that’s a whole other process) and they don’t really seem to get along with qobuz all the time.
Overall, I like it, but it still needs work.
Platform podcasters who spread misinformation
Lol just say Joe Rogan
What an awful website. You either sell your soul or you throw away your money. No thanks, I will stick to the post title.
gotta give even more money to joe fuckhead - bet absolutely none of this will improve artist payouts…
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 prices 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
I’ve had a grudge against Spotify waaaayyyy back when it first launched as an app on the computer.
For some reason, the Spotify app on my Mac wasted a ton of resources and battery. And it made me so mad I’ve never used them since.
Then years later they made dumbass Joe Rogan the face of the company so fuck all that.
Two things come to mind, spotify was always a browser based app on mac/linux/windows, I think that was way more inefficient in the early days of doing apps that way. The other thing is that spotify originally used its users’ computers as cache to serve other users, that might’ve caused some additional load.
Friendly reminder that your “legally acquired” library of FLAC files never raises its subscription prices!
I will never part from locally stored music. I do, however, would love to have my collection run through a recommendation algorithm for discovering new music.
Would scrobbling to e.g. ListenBrainz (or last fm) be an option for you for discovery?
Yep. Hooray for self hosting!
And yet, despite the subscription price or its raise, Spotify still insists on forcing promoted content on your homepage.
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
What do you think about Qobuz as a musician?
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.
Let’s say it together: Enshittification
It’s been long underway for Spotify; raising prices is just the lastest step.
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.
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.
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?
At my PC now, where the radio option doesn’t seem to exist at all!?!
Strange, it has the ‘autoplay more like this’ option on the web player (which does basically the same) but not the explicit ‘artist radio’ option. Huh.
Ah, I turned off auto play because it would randomly start playing other music instead of continuing my massive playlist…
“Go to Radio” on the app. Hmm…
Yeh, found it in the android app (on tracks, not artists). Not there on desktop though.
I can play the radio on the app to my desktop though… Guess that works. Not exactly great UX though.
Thanks for pointing out that it exists though!
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.
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.
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!
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.
Yeah, the web client works just fine on Linux. A good native client would be better, of course, but I’d rather use the web one than a half-assed native one.
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.
Qobuz released Qobuz connect back in May
Thank you for the correction! I have updated the comment.
Qobuz catalog is extremely lacking IME.
Do they have an API? I use a lot of third party recommendation services, to avoid Spotifys and would love to make sure I can create playlists into it
Im 90% sure they have an API, I’ve seen github projects that mention using it
might be possible to just build a TUI for it then. I’ll look into it.
I’m glad to hear this! I’ve just cancelled our Spotify this past week and my partner is looking for a new service (I only listen to the same albums on repeat so I’m going to survive).
You guys are paying for Spotify?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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…
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.
Do I need an invite for usenet?
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
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.
And that Judas priest CD in the cellar somewhere, sometimes you have paid the artist already so soulseek comes in handy.
Of course… I mean you don’t want them coming around your place to see you do you (Judas Priest that is)
Of course… not quite my point but yours is valid. I’d just like a more ethical alternative which I know is asking far too much in 2025
Bandcamp?
I buy merch or direct where I can. I generally pirate older stuff or stuff I would not pay for or cannot find anywhere. I got a rip of dogma and I wll buy the4k to encourage a sequel.
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)
I’ve been using a cracked yt music since the Spotify crackdown. I miss my playlists often :^(
must be hard paying 5 bucks for an exporter :^(
Can’t be fucked looking into how to grab my playlists. I’m sure I will eventually
Same with pi-hole.
We have the duo plan, for me and my wife. Kids don’t need one yet.
Their strategy has been for years to make the phone app very constrained if you’re not paying, so to have any decent experience that was kinda required.
I don’t no. But as they keep removing features from the free account, and here in the UK you at least need an account now to play anything people do
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What bubble?
the modded app chad bubble
Wrong assumption 👋
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Username checks out
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I never said it wasn’t a successful service. I’m only genuinely surprised that so many people pay for what I personally consider marginal improvements. Also thanks for being the usual internet jerk ready to snap at any comment he doesn’t like: now I have an idea of who may pay for that subscription.
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Damn, you got me! Now I have to rethink my whole plan to undermine Spotify’s revenues one comment a time!
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fuck Spotify, I only listen to downloaded flac and mp3 music and YouTube
