The day I canceled my Spotify subscription

I’m not a fan of Spotify but I don’t want to give up community playlists&#x2F;discovery features. Also Spotify works with everything. If it has a speaker and any kind of App Store (or even “only blessed developers” App Store, aka infotainment systems and the like) then there is a Spotify app.<p>Apple Music is the clear alternative (for me) but the last time I tried it (to be fair, it was 4+ years ago) I hated the UI. Also, integrations with other devices were hit and miss unless you were using AirPlay. Nowadays Apple Music might fit my needs nicely so I should give it another shot.<p>I will never listen to a podcast on Spotify (they are a cancer to the podcasting industry, anyone who cares about the podcasting medium should not be using Spotify for podcasts) and while I have less of a aversion to their audiobooks I already have my workflow for audiobooks that I love (Audible-&gt;rip-&gt;Plex-&gt;Prologue).<p>Maybe I’m the weird one but I _hate_ having music, podcasts, and audiobooks together in one app. I want to switch between these 3 things picking up right where I left. I can open Overcast and hit play and pick up on the last podcast I was listening to. I have a lock screen complication to launch Prologue and pick up where I was in my book. And for Spotify I can start listening right where I left off in a playlist. The idea of combining those into 1 app sounds horrible.

I’ve read a lot of people griping (quite validly) that Spotify doesn’t distribute each subscriber’s monthly fee according to the streams they listen to that month. Does anyone why they don’t do that? Is it complex artist deals or difficulty in computing attribution at scale?

My main problems with subscriptions for media is is that (a) the provider can change the price whenever they want (b) they can change the service whenever they want, (c) you don&#x27;t get the media to own, and (d) they can track your usage and sell your data which contributes to the sort of economy I&#x27;m not fond of.<p>Yes, there is the advantage of discovering new media with algorithms, but I&#x27;d rather just do some independent research and pay for MP3s to download forever. Nothing beats having a song on a local file, being able to play your song, knowing that it only costs the electricity, and finally that no one in the world knows that you are playing it.

Previous discussion: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=39427876">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=39427876</a> Feb-2024 | 498 comments<p>Related: &quot;The Ghosts in the Machine&quot; <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=42461530">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=42461530</a><p>&quot;The Ugly Truth About Spotify Is Finally Revealed&quot; <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=42478107">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=42478107</a>

I am a heavy user of spotify and their &quot;station&#x2F;radio&quot; feature. Like a song? Go to it&#x27;s song-station and explorer other songs like it. It&#x27;s this kind of discovery that keeps me using Spotify.<p>Are there any alternatives to that?

Everyone has better music discovery than Spotify. Tidal is the best but their ui is the worst apple is ok and Spotify just pushes garbage that the artists label payed to push, mixed in with songs they know they won’t have to pay the artists anything for. The algorithm optimizes for minimum cost per stream.

Just cancelled mine last week too, my Spotify is one of the earliest accounts (my url is still my username not some random hash).<p>Basically, I am just tired of waiting Spotify’s lossless plan.