A few years ago, I was having a chat with a friend outside of a bar. His band had finished playing for the night and we were having a quick smoke before heading back inside. I had mentioned my recent job loss, but that I was hopeful. After all, I already had someone at Spotify refer me and they were excited enough to let me skip part of the interview process to come in. The look of disgust on his face was immediate. I laughed, and quickly assured him that I told them to pound sand. “Fuck Spotify,” we agreed.
The problem with Spotify has been building for a long time. Now it’s more dire than ever. Spotify has always underpaid artists, and seemed to, through suggestion algorithms, push users towards larger, more well-known bands, bands backed by large labels. Their algorithmic suggestions felt like a personalized way to learn about new bands, but it’s an illusion. Likely because Spotify knows what music you don’t know and can fill in the gaps with similar songs from their most profitable deals. Spotify commodified music. When I was on Spotify, I’d feel like I discovered some new niche band, only to see and hear them everywhere just a few days later. I didn’t discover them, they’re being pushed. When Chappell Roan was becoming more well-known, I asked myself if she was just another label’s algorithmically-boosted promotion, or if she was actually good. I just couldn’t trust the algorithm anymore, which seems to be made not to help you discover new artists, but make a profit. Why should something as human as art come suggested to me via a machine?
Art, the very soul of humanity, became as much background noise as a white noise machine. An expensive subscription-based white noise machine. While the money for bands has historically mostly come from live shows and merch more than physical music sales, the sale of music completely dropping out in favor of even smaller payouts from streaming has been devastating for the industry. Almost nothing from Spotify’s small pot they share with artists makes its way to smaller bands. If video killed the radio star, Spotify is seemingly trying to kill the local rock star. They might succeed.
When something becomes a key part of your life, it can be tough to cut it out. How do you take control of an addiction without admitting it’s a problem to be so dependent on it? But think about your relationship with Spotify. Do you like that artists have to hit thousands of streams to even start seeing any money from Spotify? Do you like that when they reach millions of streams, they still may only receive a few dollars?
Do you love music, or do you just consume it in the background while you do other tasks?
If you’re questioning your relationship with Spotify, but don’t know how to leave, congratulations! You’ve taken the first step towards getting out of that toxic relationship or quitting an addiction, whatever metaphor works for you. The first step is admitting there’s a problem. The next step is a bit harder: doing something about it.
Fortunately, in the case of quitting Spotify, it’s a lot easier than you’d think. Here are some tips for leaving Spotify, and others for just being a more supportive fan.
In This Article:
Just Move to Another Streaming Platform
It really is that easy.
screenshot via Apple
Let’s start off by not breaking the habit, just altering it a bit. Think of it like using soda to dial back on drinking alcohol. Sure, you’re replacing one bad habit with another, but the other is a little better on your liver. Just don’t over-do it.
Most streaming platforms don’t publish how much artists get per play on average. This is because payments can be variable between artists due to deals with labels, promotions, and even how much the artist streams. However, a song needs over 1,000 plays within the previous 12 month period before Spotify will begin paying out for it. That’s a moving target, and it has to come from an undetermined number of unique listeners, so even having a few superfans can’t boost your tracks. That is, combined, a little over two days of listening time that artists provide, completely unpaid. That means small artists, bands starting out, local bands, they’re rarely, if ever, going to get a payout for all but their most popular tracks, if even those.
No streaming service will be perfect. Companies still take a large amount of overhead, and labels also take their own sizable cut. Streaming is one of the worst ways to support your favorite artists, even with the best-paying platforms. However, it’s convenient, and you don’t want to leave it behind yet. Understandable! Hey, I still have a music streaming service too. I’m not going to pull you away from these entirely, just the worst of them.
Because services are not transparent about this, there are a number of payout per stream estimates across the web. It’s tough to say just how much more artists make from other services than Spotify. However, every study I could find found that Qobuz, Tidal, Apple Music, Deezer, and even Napster pay artists far more than Spotify. Every study I found showed they all pay more than twice what Spotify pays out per stream.
- Statista Report crediting Duetti Music Economics report
- Shows Apple Music, Tidal, and Amazon Music paying artists over twice what Spotify does
- Music Radar
- Also shows Apple Music, Deezer, Tidal, and Amazon Music paying over twice what Spotify does
These aren’t perfect values that will be true for every artist. They’re not hard rules. However, despite coming from different sources, they generally come to similar conclusions. Spotify is always near the bottom of the list, with most other popular streaming services paying twice what Spotify does per stream in their findings. The only services that are lower are those who pay for clips of songs, like Meta or TikTok.
Using anything but Spotify seems to be the best choice, though one study did recommend staying away from YouTube Music and Pandora and Amazon, obviously, leaves much to be desired with employment conditions. Consistently, Qobuz, Tidal, Apple Music, and Deezer seem to be better options.
The only warning I’ll make is for Apple Music. If you move your library here, be sure to keep iCloud Syncing off if you use iTunes to manage the songs you’ve purchased or imported from physical media before. Otherwise, Apple could replace your songs with their own copies, and then you’re at the whim of Apple for your own music. They can remove your access at any time, and you could lose your music. It’s happened to me because I wasn’t careful enough, and now it’ll be some effort to get all my personal music collection and playlists “offline” again. Don’t make the same mistake I made.
Service Picked, How to Switch?
screenshot via Songshift
So you chose your favorite service and now you want to leave Spotify behind. How should you go about doing it? I’m willing to bet if you’re addicted to Spotify you likely have a number of favorite playlists. Most are likely AI generated, and you’ll move past those kinds of playlists eventually anyway, but, for now, you likely want to keep these playlists. That’s perfectly understandable too! Here’s how you can do that.
First, I think you should examine your playlists. How many of them do you actually want to keep? Perhaps do some pruning. It’ll make the next steps easier.
I personally used an app called SongShift to move my music from Spotify to Apple Music. This app made it easy, and I was able to use the free version too! Plus, now when people send me a Spotify playlist, I just copy the link into SongShift and move the playlist into Apple Music to listen to it. There are a number of services that can do this, but Songshift has consistently worked for me.
From there, follow your favorite artists, import your songs, whatever you need to do to make your new platform feel like home. You’ll find many of the features from Spotify are everywhere else, and the ones that aren’t weren’t worth what you thought they were. Plus, you can get higher sound quality from a number of streamers, including Tidal and Apple Music.
Hopefully, you’ll try listening to entire albums and building out a physical media collection, but a streaming service can be a good holdover to get you to that point. Step one to supporting musicians better is just to get off Spotify, and if you’ve done that, you’ve already taken a huge step. Ditching Spotify for another streaming service over how much they pay artists will show the industry that supporting musicians is vitally important for their profit margins, the only thing any of them actually care about. Maybe it’ll be enough to start making music a viable path again.
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A Step Further: Being a More Supportive Fan
You likely can guess the biggest tip I have here: buy stuff.
When you buy stuff from bands, you can directly give them far more than they likely get via streaming. With merch sales, you’re usually putting money directly in the band’s pocket. Small bands will often be selling homemade goods. Patches, pins, mix tapes, printed shirts, crafts, accessories, it can all be done at home and often is because bands aren’t moving enough merchandise to sell what they make for a large enough margin to buy bulk or get professionally printed merch. Plus, how much cooler is the hand-made stuff?
Bandcamp/Websites
screenshot via Bandcamp
Where do you buy stuff? Besides the most obvious: the merch table at a live show, you’ll find a lot of musicians pointing you to Bandcamp. Sure, some musicians will have their own websites and their own distribution systems, but they’ll also maintain a presence on Bandcamp. Why? Because Bandcamp collects a small—compared to other sites or the costs of self-hosting— fee on all goods sold, 15%. They also have a name-your-own-price structure, that allows consumers to offset that. Plus, on Bandcamp Friday (the last was on August 1st), all sales go directly to the artist. Many use Bandcamp Friday as a day to release limited edition merch or merch that goes towards charitable causes. Sometimes bands will point you directly to their label’s website instead of Bandcamp. If so, go there, that’s likely where they can make the largest cut of merch sales.
Bandcamp has a number of benefits for users. You can follow artists, get on their mailing lists, and when you buy physical media, you can usually get a digital copy for free. It’ll save you the trouble of trying to rip your physical media. With so few people having a computer with a CD drive anymore, it can be tough to turn any physical media into digital media you can own, backup, and save forever. While companies like Apple might have pulled you away from physical media, pushing us towards their streaming-first subscriptions, Bandcamp can help you get some control back. Plus you can even stream your collection from the app!
The best advice I have here is to listen to the band. That is, shop where they tell you to shop. If they’re pointing fans to their own website, go there. If they prefer Bandcamp, check out Bandcamp. Just follow them where they are. How do you figure this out? The old school solution might be going to a show and chatting them up afterwards. But you could also just find them on social media.
Follow On Socials!
Follow your favorite bands wherever they are. A surprisingly large percentage of them will use Instagram. In fact, you may want to start with Instagram when it comes to any of your favorite bands. Maybe make your own Instagram profile you can keep public to share music you love and follow your favorite artists. A good music-only social media service hasn’t emerged yet, but Instagram does serve as a key way to share music through videos, stories, and reels.
Videos of live performances are popular, and they can use Instagram to share news of upcoming events, merch, meet-ups, whatever they’re working on. It can help you find more ways to support artists, and, through the events they do, find other artists to follow related to ones you already know you like.
I also follow a few bands on Bluesky. Bluesky isn’t quite as good at putting media in your face, but they are increasing their video offerings to compete with Instagram Reels and TikTok, so definitely follow your favorites on Bluesky if you get the chance.
Buying Physical Media (And Playing It)
Sure, physical media won’t give the artist money every time you listen to it, but it will give them a much larger lump sum up front. That’s an investment in more music from the band at a later date. Then you can buy when they release new music, further supporting the band. It’s far more profitable than streaming, even if it is a difficult way to make money.
The options for physical media are a bit easier to describe than those for digital media. After all, a Playdate console can play digital media, but you shouldn’t get one for that. So let’s start with the physical media options, which may be your best option anyway. It’s always best to have a hard copy of any media you purchase.
Vinyl
I sometimes forget how vinyl can look complicated to get into for someone not already in the hobby. A friend of mine asked me about my simple setup, but even that sounded a bit much, as I have both a preamp with an equalizer and a headphone amp. I explained that the most important part is just the turntable and a powered speaker to listen to the music on, you can figure out the other parts later. That is, as long as you buy a turntable that includes a preamp of its own. And my suggestion does.
product photo via Audio Technica
I was just talking about this exact turntable with a friend the other day. The Audio Technica AT-LP60X is a staple beginner turntable. About a decade ago, the previous model of this player was the first turntable I bought, and I still use it to this day. It’s an automatic turntable, so you don’t need to know much more than the type and size of the vinyl: 33 or 45RPM, 7″ or 12″. That’s it. Most records are 12″ today, so pop one on, keep it set to 33RPM, the default, and press start. The turntable does the rest for you.
The LP60X also has a built-in preamp for line output. This is generally good enough to get volume for standard headphone jack input for powered speakers with their own volume control, such as a Bluetooth speaker with aux input. However, if you want to listen on headphones and independently control the volume yourself, I highly recommend a headphone amp. Personally, I started with an inexpensive headphone amplifier. I got the O2 from Drop, a super simple amp, and a simple pre-amp from Douk. You could also check out something like this headphone amplifier from Fosi that also includes bass and treble adjustment and doesn’t add much to the cost. You’re looking at spending under $280 to get started with some decent hardware. From there, you just have to build out your music collection.
The Audio Technica model sounds great, and you can upgrade your setup in multiple ways without replacing your turntable. From adding your own preamp, amp, and better speakers, to upgrading the stylus itself, you’ll have room to grow before you want to replace your turntable. Talk to a few in the hobby and you’ll find the same thing my friend and I agreed on: it’s the best inexpensive turntable you can buy. No frills like dialing in the speed manually or Bluetooth, but it works great out of the box for anyone looking to have a great-sounding vinyl experience without breaking the bank. If you do want Bluetooth, Audio Technica does make this model with Bluetooth for $100 more. You could also go for their portable and adorable “Sound Burger,” which also has Bluetooth for just $200, but is certainly a less versatile player as it does leave the vinyl exposed. It’s very cool though.
Cassettes
I recently started a love affair with cassettes. I have an entire article that I’m preparing that goes into that journey, so I’ll keep this section here simple. Cassettes are a great way to collect and listen to music. Cassettes get a bad rap that they absolutely do not deserve. Cassettes in good condition sound great. Get a decent cassette player, and you’ll love the analog audio experience. Plus, they’re so compact, so you can easily have hundreds of them without taking up much space, and players actually fit in your pocket. Try putting a vinyl in your pocket or purse, and CD players? They’re huge! Forget it! Cassettes are making a comeback, and for good reason.
I’m pumping up Bandcamp a lot in this, but I do like finding cassettes there. However, you can find them at plenty of local music stores, Tapehead City, Barnes & Noble, even merch tables at shows! Many of the shows I’ve been to have at least one band selling their music on cassettes. Cassettes are making a comeback among smaller bands because they’re inexpensive to record and produce and get the music out in the hands of people. Many can do it without a label.
Playing Your Cassettes
How should you play them? You could buy a new cassette player. Fiio CP13 seems to have the best sound in perfect conditions, but I’ve found it’s disappointing in real world usage. I haven’t tried their competitor from We Are Rewind yet, but if you’re looking to buy new, I’d recommend that one just based on how disappointing the Fiio CP13 has been in my short time playing it. My real suggestion is to forget the new players. They’re all based on the exact same junk mechanism because it’s the only cassette mechanism being made anymore. They don’t have bass boosting, which tapes practically need, and they don’t have noise reduction. Instead, get a repaired classic cassette player from the 90’s.
I bought old cassette players on eBay. Find ones that have been repaired and serviced if you’re starting out, and look for cassette players from the mid-90’s for the best sound. Just search for something like, “Serviced sony walkman cassette player working,” and you’ll find plenty of good results. You can also find a large number of serviced cassette players on Retrospekt. Avoid their “CP-81” player, it’s just like the Fiio or WeAreRewind players, instead go for their refurbished models. They’re a bit overpriced from Retrospekt though, you can usually find better players for a lot less on eBay. The biggest things to look for when considering a new cassette player will be that it’s been serviced, with new bands, has bass boosting like Sony’s Megabass, and has Dolby noise reduction.
While the new players don’t sound as good as the old ones, if people buy these new players, and show there’s a market there, perhaps they’ll one day reach the sound quality we had 30 years ago. I highly recommend collecting cassettes, I absolutely love mine. Don’t be afraid to go for something like the Fiio or We Are Rewind players if you just want something you know will work, even if it won’t sound the best. They still actually sound decent, and you can find them in stock today.
CDs
CDs are, somehow, trickier than cassettes. Though they are making a comeback. Plenty of people still have something in their house that can play a CD, from game consoles to old computers or even an old portable CD player. But you probably don’t listen to CDs much, even if you have a collection of them.
Your best bet for CDs is probably just ripping them. You can get an external CD drive for less than $100, often far less if you don’t need to burn CDs, and use that to rip the CDs into your library. You’ll want to get the highest fidelity you can, lossless with a high sample rate. This ensures that as much of the data from the CD ends up in your copy on your computer.
You can get portable CD players, of course, even some modern ones that should sound pretty good. But… why? Listen, I grew up in the CD player phase. I have, at my apartment, my old CD Walkman. And I can promise you, I’ve walked outside with my cassette Walkman players instead of my CD Walkman every single time. I have a CD collection, I have a CD player, I have albums I love on CD, I just never take it on the go. Even with anti-skip protection, they could skip, get scratched or damaged, and they’re large enough that you can pretty much only put them in a large bag or very large pockets. CDs, in my opinion, are best for ripping digital versions of your music, and not as great for the listening experience. But if you want to own a physical copy of your favorite music that’s easy to rip, CDs are a fantastic choice. You may want to get a stereo system at some point, a listening station for cassettes, CDs, vinyl, whatever your heart desires. Beyond that, I see CDs as more of a digital backup.
Digital Media
You can also just buy digital media. Your first thought may be to go to iTunes, but I would recommend against it. With apps like iTunes, you’re not buying the song, you’re buying a license to “access” the song. It’s not the same because Apple can, at any time, withdraw that access. Through iCloud syncing, Apple has removed music I personally ripped from CDs from my computer because they lost the rights to the music, so I advise against trusting that. Don’t trust anyone, especially not Apple, with managing your music collection in the cloud.
Instead, I would actually recommend buying CDs and ripping them to build out a digital collection. You’ll always have the CDs as backup in case your own drives or backup drives for your computer fail. However, if you don’t want to do that, you can buy songs directly from musicians on their websites, typically through other apps or services. If they’re on Bandcamp, I highly recommend it, especially since you can build out a digital library and a physical media library in the same purchase with Bandcamp. This article wasn’t meant to be a love letter to Bandcamp, but it sure is looking like one. Just be flexible. Go where your favorite artists are.
Playing Digital Media
This probably seems like an easy solution. Just load up songs from your computer onto your phone! And yes, you can do that. You can use whatever headphone solution you have, be it a dongle or Bluetooth, transfer songs directly from your computer to your phone, and just listen. If you’re using iTunes, you can use the Apple Music app, just make sure to turn off iCloud syncing and sync over WiFi direct or a USB cable so Apple doesn’t replace your copies of music with their own. On Android, you can transfer the files over in a few ways. SD card, a USB link and an app like Android File Transfer to load music into your music directory. From there, you can use apps like Poweramp or find your own favorites to listen to your music.
But what if you want something that’s just for music. A modern-day iPod? Unfortunately, Apple gave up on that. But fortunately, others haven’t. Sony recently stopped selling even their older Walkman models, but they do have some high-end digital Walkman models. These are high-end audio gear powered by Android, and come with incredible sound quality, but will be based on older versions of Android, so you may not want to use them online too much.
I’d be more likely to suggest something like Fiio’s Snowsky Echo Mini. It’s a cute little player that’ll work with most music formats, though it seems it won’t work with Apple’s Bluetooth headphones. Still, I’ve found workarounds for that before, though I haven’t tried this player specifically. Fiio also makes a range of other players in a variety of price ranges.
You could also consider a good DAC. I personally use Fiio’s BTR15. This allows me to use non-Bluetooth headphones with my phone over Bluetooth. It has a built in equalizer, great sound quality and codec support, plus it can work as a DAC for my computer. Though, the firmware is currently not working well for that. I still am using my phone or computer to store the music, but it’s playing through a high quality audio interface.
Finally, you can look to the past. Buy an old iPod! I’m considering getting my old one out of my parent’s attic, replacing the battery (which I’m sure is on the verge of bursting), and swap out the hard drive for a solid state drive.
The companies that helped us put our music collections in our pockets took our music collections away, replacing them with expensive streaming plans that pay artists fractions of a penny, far less than they deserve. But you can still revive the freer, more artist-friendly past.
Spread the Word
Hey, this tip’s easy. One of the best ways you can support musicians is just by spreading the word. Follow them on socials, like, repost, and share. And, yeah, recording concerts from the back of a huge concert hall is kind of pointless. But if you’re up close and can get some good shots, especially of small local bands, record part of the show or your favorite parts of a song and post it to your socials. Tag the band and let them reshare it if they ask.
We let people convince us that liking things was cringe. That we were too cool to be fans of anything. But that’s so boring. It’s turned people into the most boring lumps of screen-addicted, brain-rotted, barely living flesh. Shake off that shell you’re hiding in and let the world see you for what you love, not what you think will make you look cool. Let yourself love things.
Moving Past Streaming Altogether
I still stream music. It’ll usually be to listen to music I don’t own yet, either because it’s not for sale yet or I’m still in the discovery phase of finding a new band. I build out playlists, and I curate them for my mood still. But I far prefer to pop a cassette in my player, a record on my turntable, or my absolute favorite way to experience music: live in person. Preferably right up against the stage where I can feel the kick in my chest with every beat (wear earplugs).
On a more active month, I might go to two shows a week. On less active months, maybe only two shows in the month. I hate those months. There’s an energy in live music that just doesn’t exist in a recording. The audience being as much a part of the art as those playing it. That feeling? Streaming can’t come close. Once you find that feeling, you’ll chase it, and streaming, knowingly ripping off artists, just won’t feel right.
Follow your favorite musicians and eventually venues, zines, and other sources of information about upcoming live shows. Become more involved in really appreciating music, and the soullessness of streaming will feel incomplete, especially when it’s robbing artists or funding wars.
I feel like the best way to control an addiction is to not let it rule you. Always keep its power in check. Streaming is just like that. Use it, but find other outlets for your appreciation of music.
Go Easy on Yourself
There can be an urge to, upon learning of something, do everything at once. Completely uproot your life and if you can’t do it in a day, you failed. But that’s not the case. You don’t even have to delete Spotify today. Just start researching a competitor. Open a few tabs you check in on later. Take little steps towards making your impact on the world a positive one. Cancel your Spotify subscription after you’ve already paid for the next month so you set a deadline for yourself to find an alternative by the end of the month. Give yourself time. Ditching something that has become a regular part of your life won’t be easy at first. But it’ll get easier, and you’ll find a much deeper connection with music as soon as you stop letting soulless corporations tell you what to listen to.
Sources/References:
- Noa Hazan, Medium