I stopped paying for and using spotify when they a. renewed their contract with Joe Rogan b. changed their music payment policy so that if you aren’t trending, you make no money.
Fuck Spotify.
if you aren’t trending, you make no money
What now?
No payment for sub-1000 streams/year
To be fair, that equates to just above 3 USD per year if the numbers from the other post are correct.
I swear they haven’t added a single fucking feature that is worth anything. Every single thing they do makes their product worse.
Don’t use Spotify. Use Tidal, Apple Music, or just pirate and support authors other ways.
I switched to Tidal a few weeks ago, primarily because of lossless streaming, but also fuck Spotify for your price hikes. Not going back.
How’s the artist selection? I find a lot of stuff on Spotify that is a bit niche and I wondering if they have it. I tried searching the catalog which they say you can do but not before you sign up for their free trial which I’m not willing to
Yep after first releases and concerts, the only people benefitting from the music are the distributors who deserve nothing for the effort the artist put in.
The distributors are the only people doing any work and providing a service after the artist walks out of the recording studio.
They are not the talent providing the work. They are skimming off talent. They are riding on someone else’s talent. They are the very definition of parasites. They would have no job if there were no talent. Meanwhile the talent can find other ways to sell their work.
The “talent” doesn’t have a platform without them. This is a mutually beneficial relationship. The "talent would be waiting tables and playing for peanuts in bars without the industry professionals.
What value do “industry professionals” add in 2024?
Not OP, but I work in the industry, mostly in the live production side. Here’s a taste of behind-the-scenes stuff that artists often rely on others to handle after they leave the recording studio:
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Booking shows, radio and television appearances, and other events
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Advancing those events with venue staff
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Organizing transportation, lodging, and food for tour
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Acquiring and managing all of the gear for tour
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Getting the artists from show to show while protecting them from themselves and others
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Marketing for shows and new releases
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Mixing the material the artist just recorded in the studio
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Mastering the music the mix engineer put together from that recorded material into a dozen different formats, so you can listen on vinyl, Deezer, YouTube, Spotify, etc.
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Mixing the front-of-house (what the audience hears) and mixing the monitors (what the artist hears) for the live show
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Making sure all the folks involved with the above are booked
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Paying all the folks they booked to make the above happen
I’m not saying the entertainment biz isn’t fucked up and that artists don’t deserve a bigger slice of the pie, but a lot of artists rely on other folks to handle this stuff for them so they have the space to live their lives, create new music, and give audiences a show worth attending.
Certainly, I depend on people more creative and musically talented than me, but they also depend on me and my technically-proficient and business-savvy peers to translate their creativity into something you can access and enjoy.
Thanks for a great reply. I totally see the need for recording engineers (live and mechanical) and related jobs.
Can you compare the industry now to 10 years ago. What jobs have disappeared? The music press seems much less relevant. Does the A&R executive still exist? Etc.
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Song quality is terrible. The features are lacking and rarely useful. Now they have increased the rates and take away car play. I left when I realized my top artists and songs were the same every year. Much better to buy the songs when the quality is way better and I actually own the media
Do you and I live on a different planet? I grew up when you downloaded actual poor quality music. I stream Spotify at the highest bitrate it has, and it sounds fine. I have a nice system at home.
You talk about features and whatnot, and admittedly I am a simple user. I have albums I like, I turn on album and listen through cover to cover. I throw on Smartless, because for some reason I find Jason Bateman and Will Arnett’s abuse of Sean Hughes to be endearing.
As per usual, people on Lemmy seem to make up problems, and it ruins any sort of argument against anything. Spotify’s audio quality is not the issue. The issue is obviously the artist remuneration. To create this fake argument is to dilute any worthwhile argument, but Lemmy and Reddit before it seems to take this tack wherever possible.
I have discovered numerous artists because of Spotify. Spotify has linked me to their tickets (albeit Live Nation and fuck them) and merch stores, and I’ve bought their shitty tshirts and vinyls. I would say that’s a benefit. And I like some obscure nonsense.
Is it perfect? I don’t like how Spotify has handled its personnel. I think they can make their business model related to plays a little more friendly, but holy shit, the idealism here is ridiculous. You have people demanding perfection, without recognizing the alternative is nothing.
I’m gonna sound like a fanboy, but the alternative is Tidal.
Better audio quality, better (imo) suggestions, and not wasting money of podcasts and weird AI bs.I don’t understand why everyone suddenly hates Al .
Because it’s everywhere and it’s being shoved into our throats.
Well his Song “Eat it” kinda has this theme. But he made many other songs with other themes.
