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(With no hostility intended toward Josh here—)

I am literally begging all of you to stop giving Spotify money. There are so many alternatives. "A music streaming service" is not a hard problem to solve and like 8 companies have solved it. The company that makes your phone OS has solved it (this is true for both major phone OSes).

Josh Sutphin

2026-10-05 17:25:14

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Wow I hate this #spotify #ai

reshared this

in reply to mcc
glitchsoc - Link to source

Roger BW 😷

Also no other service sent me multiple takedowns every day (for unspecified copyright violations, when I used freely available music and my own voice) each requiring a long procedure to get the episode put back. They restored every single episode I complained about being taken down, but they kept sending more and more takedowns and I never got a human response.
Esta entrada fue editada (lunes, 5 de octubre de 2026, 17:37)
in reply to mcc
glitchsoc - Link to source

Lett Osprey 🍉

I told people at work about how Qobuz paid artists more money than any of the major streaming services (spotify being at the other end of that scale, of course), and most or less everyone agreed with spotify being evil and crappy and whatnot but "you get to share lists with friends!" and so they keep using it.

But seeing this, I hope spotify will enshittify themselves away from being anything remotely useable

in reply to George B
glitchsoc - Link to source

Lett Osprey 🍉

@gbargoud yah, i buy some from there and bandcamp. Soon, my jellyfin has enough for us to cancel streaming. Can then use half of what I would pay for streaming every month, to buy new music.

artists still get a lot more of my monet that way...

@mcc

@mcc @George B
in reply to George B
glitchsoc - Link to source

Lett Osprey 🍉

@gbargoud This could possibly be done using .ignore files. If you have two of absolutely everything, you can simply ignore all the mp3 files or all the flac files for the entire library. If it is certain albums, you can put the .ignore files withe the desired pattern into the album folders. Is it a bit more random, you possibly need to make a script that creates ignore files with the correct pattern.

This requires Jellyfin 10.11.0 or newer, the feature seems "relatively new", just about one year old, prior to that, ignore files was just to ignore entire folders.

@George B
in reply to Lett Osprey 🍉
glitchsoc - Link to source

Lett Osprey 🍉

@gbargoud src: jellyfin.org/docs/general/server/media/excluding-directory/#excluding-specific-files-or-subdirectori…

Excluding Files and Directories | Jellyfin

Directories and files can be set for exclusion from Jellyfin media library scans, permitting you to include non-tracked files and directories within your media library. This is done by using .
jellyfin.org
@George B
in reply to Lett Osprey 🍉
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George B

@lettosprey

That's a reasonable workaround but I've also noticed it's not just Jellyfin. Beets and Strawberry are also really bad at handling multiple formats of the same song and I'm surprised it's dealt with so badly in general.

@Lett Osprey 🍉
in reply to mcc
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Kevin Neely

one good thing #Spotify has going for it: it's actually not difficult to fully delete your account.

After not using the service for years, I logged back in and did this about a month ago. Very quick, and they efficiently (said they had) removed all the data after a one week cooldown period.

⭐⭐⭐⭐: highly recommended

#spotify
in reply to Iwillyeah
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tekhedd

@Iwillyeah Oh god I guess that's a fair question. 😬 TBH I don't even know. If you don't want the risk of torrenting it doesn't much matter, does it?

Honestly, I don't even know any more. My band has given up and points people to iMusic and Spotify anyway. :( Which is why at this point I simply recommend stealing.

I hate Apple's walled garden, Amazon's file naming sucks plus it's amazon... but at least you get a small cut there. iHeart owns Beatport apparently? I dunno. 😟

@Iwillyeah
in reply to Iwillyeah
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tekhedd

@Iwillyeah well in a pinch amazon does sell high quality mp3s, just with really stupid ,zip file names. 🙂 bandcamp if the band is there but that's random. otherwise... I have the same question. I don't LIKE torrenting...
@Iwillyeah
in reply to tekhedd
glitchsoc - Link to source

COD

@tekhedd @Iwillyeah
us.7digital.com is, I think, an okay place to buy MP3s. They are often a few days behind Amazon on new releases but often a dollar cheaper. They sell FLACS too, if you are into that kind of thing.

The 'us' subdomain may indicate other options. I've never looked.

@tekhedd @Iwillyeah
in reply to Iwillyeah
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Bubu

@Iwillyeah @tekhedd en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soulseek works quite well for all but the most obscure stuff.

And if it's on youtube, yt-dlp can get it for you in good enough quality.

Soulseek - Wikipedia

Contributors to Wikimedia projects (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.)
@tekhedd @Iwillyeah
in reply to John Q
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Lidsel

@Maitre @Bubu @Iwillyeah @tekhedd I do recommend checking Bandcamp first though, not many artists are on there, but occasionally you get to chuck a couple of bucks their way. I was recently delighted to find my second favorite Norwegian progrock band - Major Parkinson.
@tekhedd @Iwillyeah @Bubu @John Q
in reply to mcc
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mcc

Like, the thing is, streaming services are bad. We are doing a bad thing by using subscription music services. They are bad for artists and bad for the industry. The fact I use Tidal makes me a bad person. But like… I mean, even if you find it hard to stop doing a bad thing. Do you have to do the *worst* thing?

Spotify is qualitatively worse for both you and the world than even services by other evil corporations. Why not at least downgrade from the most harmful to second most harmful thing?

Esta entrada fue editada (lunes, 5 de octubre de 2026, 18:20)

Laura reshared this.

in reply to Matt Campbell
glitchsoc - Link to source

miunau

@matt mind this is in the optimal case of the money going directly to the artist. an artist on a label is going to get roughly between 1-3 bucks per album purchase depending on their contract, usually on the lower end
@Matt Campbell
in reply to Matt Campbell
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Alex

@matt it's cheaper for the customer and better for the musician to just buy from bandcamp. A subscription requires you pay every month and the monthly fee is often more than the mp3 album. Unless you're listening to multiple new albums per month, you only need to buy the mp3 once for your whole life.
@Matt Campbell
in reply to nico OS
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Solitha

@nicoyarz No one ever *needs* to listen to music, and if it's not your thing, then you're free not to.

It is my thing. Very much so. It is the closest I've ever had to spirituality. It is an audio window to different people, different experiences, and different cultures.

@minus @mcc

@mcc @nico OS @minus
in reply to mcc
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margot

feels like a lot of advances in capitalism have been about getting better about hiding the harms you do, so that a really relatively minor inconvenience, something that if you could directly see the impact your actions were having, seems way out of proportion to the average person

mcc reshared this.

in reply to josef
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margot

@jk i should look that up! it's definitely true, tho-- honestly i think at this point it's one of the primary appeals of capitalism for most people, since it lets us wave away most externalities that we might otherwise have to reconcile with our own morals and values
@josef
in reply to margot
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margot

@jk but yeah, one of the examples i've been amazed about is that most people don't seem to have realized that 'customer service' departments no longer exist for customer service, but to act as a human shield for the people who actually have the ability to make decisions-- something even more obvious when those same companies move to chatbots whcih are even more removed
@josef
in reply to mcc
akkoma - Link to source

DJ Sundog from the *new* toot-lab

@bigntallmike I’ve used both 7digital.com and hdtracks.com to purchase albums as FLAC without being horribly annoyed or disappointed with the purchases in the past, but it has been a couple years and that’s an age these days, so ymmv

HDtracks | You can hear the difference. Listen on the go in master studio quality.

HDtracks is a high-resolution music platform for music lovers to download their favorite tracks in master studio quality. Join us today for the ultimate listening experience!
hdtracks.com
@bigntallmike
in reply to bigntallmike
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Shad0wDragon

@bigntallmike Three options i'm aware of:
Bandcamp (offers DRM free downloads), Qobuz (They operate an online store for DRM free flac copies as well as a streaming service) or the ol' reliable buy a CD copy and rip it, which is my preference because I like having a physical thing
@bigntallmike
Esta entrada fue editada (lunes, 5 de octubre de 2026, 20:07)
in reply to mcc
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Farty McFly

I find that doing the “right” thing in the current computing climate is so alienating and exhausting. I’ll keep doing it anyway, but seeing the apathy in most of the people that surround me makes me think that maybe it’s just not worth all the energy I put into it?
in reply to Shauna
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mcc

@shauna i don't know what that is and i think i can help you.

if you'd like to make a post along the lines of "I want to switch away from Spotify but I need [xyz]", I could boost it and see if anyone has a recommendation tho.

@Shauna
in reply to mcc
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Raven667

I pay for YouTube so I hope there is some sharing with artists on there, I tend to listen to albums from the official channel, not randos. Although what i listen to o most, besides my local community FM radio station, is Sunshine Live radio stream and DJs on Twitch like Pleasant Hiss. There is something nice about having music on like any streaming service does, but instead of algorithmic auto-play there is a DJ making choices. I also assume that any radio station or professional DJ is paying ASCAP/BMI fees so money is flowing to the creator in some way.
in reply to mcc
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CounterPillow

My (least) favourite thing is when people use "there is no ethical consumption under capitalism" as a blanket excuse to completely exclude ethics from affecting their consumer decision making process in any way.

Like they're afraid they might be caught holding moral values, which would be "cringe" as the kids say.

in reply to mcc
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Gabriel Pettier

i stopped paying them a long time ago, but i have yet to replace them, now i got the worst experience possible, having to hit mute every few songs and forgetting to hit it again 😓.

I guess starting to pay for youtube premium would solve that problem and a couple others. But yeah, there are alternatives that are better for artists, i know.

But i discovered quite a bit of music i like through spotify "radio from title" of stuff i liked.

Esta entrada fue editada (lunes, 5 de octubre de 2026, 18:31)
in reply to rubbel
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Noggog

I have been experimenting with my own personal app that scrapes recommendations from listenbrainz/spotify/deezer's API and then has you rate bands up/down and then gives you further recommendations based on those links. Hoping to take it primetime sometime after I work out the kinks and get time enough to deal with the open source burdens
in reply to mcc
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AMT

Sorry, this maybe off topic but a genuine question nevertheless. Say I hate Spotify anyway, but also find both Apple and YouTube music too expensive for my taste and given that I only listen to old classical music that’s in the public domain most of the time, what are better options other than hosting nextcloud myself?
in reply to AMT
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mcc

@amt "I don't want to pay and I don't want to self host"… that's a difficult combination. Have you heard of PlexAmp? That costs money but it's a one time payment not a subscription. It lets you steam music from a home computer to your phone and it's much lower friction than alternatives. You don't have to set up a nextcloud you just need one always-plugged-in computer.
@AMT
in reply to AMT
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mcc

@amt the other alternatives i'd check out are qobuz, deezer, tidal. i use tidal. i haven't price compared in a while and i think qobuz has got better since i last switched. qobuz also has a store (not just a sub service) and someone in this thread mentioned they are good for classical.

also, someone mentioned this, it appears to be similar to plexamp, but i don't know anything about it. sfba.social/@simmer/117390246753636884

simmer

2026-10-05 20:43:33

mastodon - Link to source

For anyone who loved Google Music before they took it away from us, there's a great alternative with a similar model (upload your library to their cloud and access it from anywhere): iBroadcast

Check them out!


@AMT
in reply to william ⁂ maggos
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Noggog

@wjmaggos Early days when it was slightly more optimistic, I had the pipedream of using crypto to set up a "personal sub" to all my artists. Throw $10 bucks in every month, and have it carve it up and send a bit to every band I love. No patreon/paypal/visa taking any cuts. Feels like it would be a (finally) useful application for the tech.
@william ⁂ maggos
in reply to mcc
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Ferroxo

I am and always have been a fan of CDs, even if saying that ages me further. Bandcamp is also a fantastic resource and I've discovered so much good new music there over the years.

The issue I always run into telling people to stop handing Spotify more money is "but how will I be able to listen to X and Y and show people Z!?"

in reply to mcc
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Trantion

@Ferroxo Have you tried ripping the scratched CDs? I scratched my favourite track on my favourite CD many years ago and it became unplayable, but a computer will usually extract a perfect copy. It can take literally half an hour to extract a 5 minute track, but it worked :-)
@Ferroxo
in reply to mcc
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ooOOOoo water deer vvitch

Just cause everyone is dropping the lesser evil alts: deezer’s ceo has been outspoken about the harm of “AI” music & requires it be tagged on the service (amongst some other pro-artist and pro-human choices)
in reply to Floon
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John McChesney-Young

@hteasley Someone - a hero! - created a geographical search engine for Bandcamp: limneticvillains.itch.io/limneticmaps. It also lets you search a genre or instrument, if you prefer. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised but it looks like 90% of Bandcamp's Finnish artists are metal!

Limnetic Maps - Indie Musicians V1.07 by limneticvillains

Bandcamp links around the world: V.1.0
itch.io
@Floon
Unknown parent
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mcc

@dikleyt I keep trying to switch from big evil corporate providers to smaller midsized-company providers and people tell me "oh you shouldn't do that, there's a blog post about how their CEO is an asshole". Okay? Does Google become good because their PR people convinced the CEO not to share his views in comment sections ?!?
@dikleyt
in reply to mcc
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CubeOfCheese

PLATFORM
EST. PER STREAM
Tidal
$0.011-$0.013
Apple Music
$0.007-$0.01
Deezer
~$0.006
Amazon Music
~$0.004
Spotify
$0.003-$0.005
YouTube Music
$0.001-$0.002
Pandora
$0.001-$0.002

playlistsupply.com/streaming-royalty-rates/

Streaming Royalty Rates 2026, Per-Stream Payout Compared | PlaylistSupply

Streaming royalty rates compared: Spotify ~$0.003-$0.005, Apple Music ~$0.007-$0.01, Tidal ~$0.011-$0.013, YouTube Music ~$0.001-$0.002 per stream.
PlaylistSupply
in reply to mcc
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Pumpkin Sponge

I just started paying for a seed box that comes with a bunch of apps including two different options for streaming your own music so if you have a decent collection you can even host your own streaming service.

But anything other than Spotify, please people. They platform Joe Rogan for God's sake.