Recent news revealed that Spotify’s CEO Daniel Ek has been investing heavily in military tech companies, which adds another ethical layer to a platform already criticized for how little it pays musicians !
Spotify only pays artists about $3–5 per 1,000 streams, using a pro-rata model that directs most money toward major stars… By contrast, Qobuz (≈$18–20 per 1,000 streams) and Tidal (≈$12–13) pay far more fairly!
However Tidal is far from ethical. Most of its revenue is controlled by private investors and founders and small artists still earn very little…
More fair-minded platforms like Bandcamp, Resonate, Ampled, or SoundCloud’s fan-powered royalties prioritize musicians over investors.
With these more ethical alternatives available, why do we keep using Spotify?
Zero assumptions here, you said you were, and I quote, “not seeking out new stuff”, I didn’t assume that.
So you DO enjoy streaming music…
I hope you enjoyed feeling like you had a “gotcha” moment. When on my computer, yeah, I watch some YouTube, but mostly news and late-night monologues. I sure as shit don’t pay for it.
I have no interest in “gotcha moments”. Just having a discussion about the virtues of streaming music platforms vs. buying.
If you don’t pay for it then you are pirating, which is a whole other discussion.
“If you don’t pay for it then you are pirating” is not a discussion, it’s an erroneous blanket statement.
Good thing that’s not the discussion we were having then.
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LOL your suggestion is that they said they’re subscribed to various producers but they don’t listen to them? Now that’s pedantic.
Being subscribed is not the same as listening. In fact, I use a Firefox add-on to specifically exclude what I’ve categorized as music. It is vanishingly rare that I turn that setting off.
I strongly associate any given track with the mood I was in when I first heard it, and I’ve not been in anywhere near a good mood since the election, so listening to new stuff at this point would give it negative connotations that would forever follow that track around in my mind.
So I stick with “college road trip” or “I just met my (ex-)wife” sorts of stuff. I don’t exercise or anything, and my earbuds are lost somewhere in my van. I rarely listen to music, period, because it reminds me of not being homeless.