from Hacker News

Fans quitting Spotify to save their love of music (2022)

by edu on 3/24/24, 7:03 AM with 133 comments

• by labrador on 3/24/24, 8:44 AM

  Unlike put forth in the article, I listen to music for the experience not as background noise. For me the problem is simply being "over-whelmed by choice", which AI tells me was outlined in a book called "The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less" by Barry Schwartz, which I haven't read because there are so many other books to read.

• by nojvek on 3/24/24, 10:32 AM

  Oh man. With Spotify bundling music and podcasts in one mingled experience, it drives me mad.

  And their Spotify DJ crap and random banners. Spotify 5 years ago with minimal interface and just music was great.

  They have ruined the experience for me now. Same with Apple Music and Google Play. So much jank.

  Most apps ruin their initial allure by doing too much. Having too many hands in the kitchen.

• by Neil44 on 3/24/24, 8:53 AM

  I use Spotify a lot, but also listen to a lot of niche programs on BBC sounds. Jazz, electronica, 90's dance... Those kind of feed my Spotify playlists and nudge my tastes.

  One thing I will note is that the BBC often makes great effort to 'enthrone' each song, telling little stories about the people, history etc which helps you engage with it but Spotify tends to just vomit track after track at you which can devalue them a bit.

• by Contortion on 3/24/24, 11:30 AM

  The arguments in the article seem to basically boil down to 'I stopped using Spotify because I didn't like how I was using it' and 'I stopped using Spotify because I assign value to music outside of listening to it'. In both cases I don't think Spotify is really the issue.

• by aidos on 3/24/24, 8:51 AM

  This is somewhat in line with a comment I wrote yesterday about listening to music from vinyl (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39803620).

  Spotify primarily breaks the experience by making it hard for me to find something I want to listen to in the moment. Discovery Weekly used to be a great way to surface new things by having me listen to the same songs again and again but now I’m not commuting I’m not using it.

  Sonos takes it to a whole new level by having a UI so poor that it sometimes leaves me not even wanting to listen anymore. After clicking about a little I just give up and put BBC Radio 6 on.

  I would love a mode where there were just 2 album covers visible on screen from my collection and an endless scroll until I hit something I wanted.

• by atmanactive on 3/24/24, 9:31 AM

  Musicians leaving streaming services because they are annoyed by the app/UI/algorithm, then, later on, wondering where did all the royalties disappear?!? If we all agreed that one individual song playback is worth half a penny, then, streaming is the only way to go. The only way to distribute royalties per real-world usage. The fact that people are using Spotify to discover music has nothing to do with using a streaming service to record and playback music (building your personal playlists). I tried them all and I left Spotify many years ago, and I understand fully how easy it is to build your own (pirated) music library, but I still hang on to Tidal as I really, really want to send my half-a-penny worth of payment to the artist I listen to. Simple as that. Apply the golden rule, and you'll realize that streaming services are the only way to go. Now, wether or not are streaming services being fair and paying their royalties to whomever deserves them down to the last penny - that's a discussion for governments/regulators/lawyers.

• by isaacdaoust on 3/24/24, 12:30 PM

  I started working on a website that’s helped me avoid the “uncomfortably familiar track loop” issue once I noticed it myself.

  It basically incentivizes/rewards you with a “disc” (displayed on your profile) once you listen to every track on an album using Spotify.

  I’ve been able to find some great music I would have otherwise overlooked because of my reluctance to listen to albums in full.

  https://discollect.app

  See my profile here: https://discollect.app/profile/clo0oz2hw0005fv02qbxn866c

• by benrutter on 3/24/24, 10:59 AM

  Interesting reading this as this has been exactly me over the last year.

  I don't exactly know why, but I'm not able go use Spotify in a way I enjoy, I end up looping over the same tracks, or discovering things in a very shallow, single focused way.

  For the last year, I've been finding music on mostly bandcamp, and streaming my collection with astiga (which is an awesome tool I can't recommend enough). I've found it gives me a much better relationship with the music I listen to- I actually discover albums, and enjoy knowing the stories behind them.

  The interesting thing is, there's no reason I couldn't discover and then listen to albums on Spotify in the same way, but I don't seem to actually be able to do this in practice. I guess it shows the power of UIs.

• by nprateem on 3/24/24, 9:00 AM

  If I listen to any spotify-generated playlists, it's literally the same couple of hundred songs over and over and over again. It drives me up the wall.

• by bsenftner on 3/24/24, 9:31 AM

  Back in the 80's I was a huge vinyl collector of the new music scene (all the punk, industrial, and what became new age) with about 5000 albums. Of course, they got destroyed in storage. Huge loss, many unique pressings where obscure bands could only press 50 copies, like early Foetus / Lydia Lunch experiments.

  When Napster came out, I managed to collect around 87 gigs worth of obscure music very similar to my old collection. Over the years I've added another 40 gigs of hip hop and more recent new music, but that original 87 gigs of the 70's Art Rock, the original punks, original industrial and new wave and then all the fantastic rug cutting Jazz classics... who needs anything new, that originates as a very watered down derivative?

• by VelesDude on 3/24/24, 9:36 AM

  I don't know if it was just because I saw the potential loss of owner ship when streaming came along or if my inner Stallman was stronger than I anticipated, but I never engaged with any of these streaming platforms. I saw things like the (DRM Free) iTunes music store as the best middle ground between analog owner ship and digital convenience.

  It is still CD's and DRM free downloads. I have a Sony NW-E394 walkman as my portable player. Is it as convienent? Not really but I have a bit more control. Also FOMO isn't really something I have much of. Sometimes it can be JOMO (Joy Of Missing Out). I usually discover stuff via local radio or TV. You know it is past midnight when Rage comes on (Australian music program).

  Works for me, might not for you.

• by COGlory on 3/24/24, 1:38 PM

  I'm really into music. Like, really into music. Probably much moreso than most HN users, although less than true audiophiles.

  I've got most of my music organized digitally with Roon. Roon is expensive, but really interesting. It basically lets you integrate your local collection with Qobuz or Tidal. It handles all the metadata and playlists and discovery through a combination of both local and streaming. For my use cases, it's basically perfect.

• by fonkyyack on 3/24/24, 8:50 AM

  I was using radio paradise a couple of years ago, where I discovered a lot of new musics and it was great. But also I wanted to listen to some of my favorite songs (things I listened when I was a teenager and some more commercials titles) and I went to a streaming service. Sometimes I regret radio paradise and the discovering of new things. But also, I like how streaming services allow me to listen to old (and new) things more "commercial".

• by james_david on 3/24/24, 12:47 PM

  The most dramatic influence on my listening habits has been online communities like rateyourmusic.com, algorithms be damned.

  Also, count me among the many HN readers I expect will weigh in about self-hosting Navidrome. Rediscovering my old favorites (and the albums I had long forgotten) has been such a delight. I ditched Spotify as a result, but for new music I signed up for Deezer because of their fair(er) pay arrangement with artists.

• by jbryu on 3/24/24, 9:43 AM

  I sometimes get nostalgic and romanticize the old days of downloading mp3s and manually labelling metadata (trying to identify genres was a lot of fun), but man did device syncing get tedious. Spotify just makes discovering/listening to music so dang easy - perhaps too easy, which I get is the point of the article. Overall I relate to it a lot.

• by Syzygies on 3/24/24, 10:44 AM

  The services Tidal and Qobuz give user-controlled access to most music in album form, often at higher than CD resolutions. I listen via Audirvana Studio, a Schiit Jotunheim DAC and balanced headphone amp, and Aeon 2 headphones.

  My interest has reawakened in deliberate listening to music as organized by the artist.

  I once sat next to a friend of Steve Jobs, on a flight. He appreciated my admiration, and took a drawing of a "current mirror" iPod charging circuit to show Steve. The conversation became uncomfortable when I asked if Jobs wanted his legacy to be the death of the album.

  Jazz is the higher mathematics of music. With Tidal or Qobuz, it's easier than ever to begin an exploration of this world.

• by Modified3019 on 3/24/24, 9:27 AM

  I have a significant amount of driving for my agricultural job, (generally with a 20-45 minutes chunk of uninterrupted driving), so that’s how I generally enjoy my music. I can’t really think and enjoy/listen to most music at the same time, so I don’t generally let it be background noise while actually doing things.

  Currently I’m adding “Weedian” compilation albums as each as it’s own playlist in the bandcamp app. I then listen through it a few times, aggressively pruning away individual songs I’m not really into. This makes it easy to come up with a much shorter list of decent songs, and uncover a few rare gems to subsequently look further into.

  While a simple enough concept, removing the need to remember what I’ve liked has been a huge improvement.

• by drra on 3/24/24, 9:23 AM

  I feel like Spotify generated playlists always lead me into some insignificant easy to listen background music and it feels like it's led by cost-effective algorithm that reinforced itself over years.

  Audiogalaxy p2p (2002ish) had way better discovery feature.

• by donatj on 3/24/24, 11:09 AM

  Semi-related question - do any of the big services other than Apple Music let you upload your personal collection? Google Music did but I'm pretty sure they lost that functionality in the transition to YouTube Music.

  I've got a lot of obscure stuff that isn't on streaming services I want access to. I love that Apple Music lets me add it, but for some reason massive chunks of my library keep getting corrupted in the cloud even though my local files stay fine.

• by kirso on 3/24/24, 12:04 PM

  Interesting, what streaming taught me when discovering new music is to skim and listen to beats / rhythms. I can pretty much tell in a few seconds whether the song is a banger, medium - worthy of adding to liked, or not enjoyable by my taste.

  I do have to stop from time to time to listen in in a focused mode to see how I feel about the tone, voice and other elements though.

• by eliasson on 3/24/24, 9:43 AM

  I have tried to organize album clubs where you take turns suggesting an album per week among a group of friends. I think this is a great way to discover music.

  Unfortunately after about a year people lost interest and the club self died. I been trying to find similar things online but it appears that album clubs are not a thing?

• by WhereIsTheTruth on 3/24/24, 10:39 AM

  The anglosphere press loves to focus on Spotify for some reasons

  "Fans" never quit Apple Music of Google Music :)

• by pyinstallwoes on 3/24/24, 10:15 AM

  Is there any curation system that actually works well? Fucking hate the Spotify forced recommended categories blended with random maybe poorly recommended things to listen to. Apple music playlist just sucks for me too now.

  Ugh.

• by parenthesis on 3/24/24, 10:40 AM

  There are other music steaming platforms. I use Tidal, finding it to be the least annoying of the ones I've tried (Spotify, Amazon, Apple).

• by amelius on 3/24/24, 10:28 AM

  What's with Spotify removing the like (heart) symbol from playlists?

  It was an important way for me to group songs, or choosing where to start playing.

• by landgenoot on 3/24/24, 8:47 AM

  I can relate with the article. If you are just looking for some background music, I'd recommend radio paradise.

• by user_7832 on 3/24/24, 10:30 AM

  Tangential, does anyone know of good recommendation systems that aren't completely out of left field? Youtube's algo is pretty great in my experience unlike Spotify's (which never seems to understand what a genre is), but youtube isn't the best for music.

  Edit: Spotify also has a habit of recommending more "mainstream" stuff, while a lot of what I listen to isn't the typical "Billboard Top 100". Youtube seems much better at suggesting songs with only a few thousand views that nearly perfectly match my taste, rather than playing yet-another-David-Guetta track (no offense to Guetta).

• by frenchman_in_ny on 3/24/24, 3:20 PM

  I just revived my MP3 collection after getting frustrated with this & Spotify and purchasing a Pi5. But the process of self-hosting, correcting ID3 tags, etc is so time consuming (& frankly somewhat beyond my ability level) and is almost pushing me back to Spotify.

• by cyanydeez on 3/24/24, 1:13 PM

  As industry processes, the cycle of invention, societal benefit and cannibalism of the invetions foundations are going very quickly now.

  Coreybdoctorow should really ponder how enshittifixation is really just a overall social/techno struggle, similar to traffic shockwaves.