Notes
Notes

    Migrating from Spotify

    My core tension with Spotify's growth has been about the expansion into Podcasts, and how that changes the app and music streaming services over time. I've largely been able to handle that by hacking the desktop apps source code to de-gunk it, but there's also a more fundamental feeling that they are ruining an open ecosystem and there's not many of those left on the web.

    But once again, Spotify is in the news for their deal with Joe Rogan, it feels like about once a year I've thought of migrating away from Spotify but never quite figured out an answer to what leaving Spotify looks like. I figured maybe I should get around to it this time.

    How I use Spotify

    • I have music on almost all the time. It tends to be the same set of playlists and people. Mostly matched to mood.
    • I have a family account which 2 other people use.
    • I enjoy the Discover weekly and Release Radar auto-playlists.
    • The desktop app has been a pretty consistent experience for the last 12 years.
    • I don't use a phone, so mobile experience is irrelevant

    My musical taste is pretty flexible, it's mostly Punk with some Pop-Punk and some weird experimental metal.

    I'm trying to think about it long term, I've been paying for Spotify since it was EU only back in 2010 and switched to a family plan when it came out - so it's reasonable enough to think that having access to music I enjoy comes to about $2000 a decade. If I had spent that money on buying tracks would I be in a different place? A lot of the good recommendation tooling in Spotify is new, and so how much value did I get from the full access to the streaming library?

    All Options

    I think this table is a good overview of every possible option. Realistically I'm not going to go through everything here.

    Streaming Options

    • Apple Music. Probably the biggest direct competitor, and I did give it a test run a year or two ago, but I'm trying to not give money to monopolies and I think chasing subscriptions is ruining / ruined Apple.

    • Amazon Music. Monopolies.

    • Deezer. A good option for staying in the music streaming world. Has similar features like recommendations and family plans, it is a bit more expensive, but not offensively. They also went in on podcasts and audiobooks, which probably means I'd just be holding off fir a few more years.

    • TIDAL. Bought by a blockchain company, so that's a big nope. Not putting money towards the big grift.

    • Napster. Owned by BestBuy? It could just be a simple plain service. If one of the most interesting options falls though, this might be viable. Seems to have a lot of the music I listen to on.

    • SoundCloud Go+. Tempting, SoundCloud have a good reputation with artists, and I'd take a convenience hit for that. They're trying new things. When I sent over 200 songs from Spotify to SoundCloud, 184 were available under Go+. Looks like some third party apps seem good

    • YouTube Music. Possible actually, I know I want to avoid giving money to monopolies, but I do watch a bunch of YouTube and removing ads (on the Apple TV) is a good side-effect. Looks like one or two desktop apps.

    Back to Files?

    I like music streaming, but the core thing is that I mostly listen to the same stuff and (with the exception of music so far) prefer to own something over rent.

    • Bandcamp. I'm largely uninterested in the social aspects of bandcamp. My band uses it. The artist share pitch is great and it feels like they're trying to do some good stuff.

    • Torrents. I mean, I don't think I'd feel too guilty grabbing some of the albums I've bought on vinyl before, or ordered merch - and I'd probably be OK with stretching that to artists I've played on repeat for 5+ years. Howver, it's not a long-term sustainable model because the bands I enjoy tend to not be too mainstream.

    General Plans

    I think I'll try SoundCloud Go+ for the trial (ergh, got to give a card ahead of time though) to have a sense if that work. If not then I think I'm going back to grabbing albums on bandcamp, downloading files and abandoning my wife + others to either Spotify ads or drag them to soundcloud.