Let this be a reminder to never turn away from piracy. It needs to constantly be in the background and if any company gets like they always do, then it comes back out. But if we let the knowledge fade away then it’s impossible to rebuild it.
Don’t threaten, just do it. Enshittification must end.
The only reason we have mainstream paid video streaming now is because early Netflix was genuinely better than dodgy, pop-up riddled mirrors on movie4k.to. The convenience was well worth 8 bucks a month. Same for Spotify.
Fast forward 10 years and Spotify wants me to pay 15 €, scan my face and listen to forced podcast ads AND pay extra for paywalled audiobooks that used to be free? Meet my good old friend youtube-downloader, then.
The news can’t easily report on users actually returning to piracy; who would admit to it? And how would you get data on it? Much easier to truthfully report on users who talk about returning to piracy.
what are “spotify fans”? Spotify paid 150k $ for Trump’s inauguration party, f them. They do not deserve my money
I left Spotify for many reasons including this. They’ve only proven that they do not care about artists at all. I remember before I left, many of the tracks that came up “based on my playlist” were just random AI generated crap.
what’s even the point of age gating “explicit” music?
“oh no! “Speak To Me” by Pink Floyd has the fuck word in it! can’t let my kids hear it!”
Just get me the kid bop version
The streaming services are run by shithead C-suites who think last quarter is the way it’s always been. They forget the only reason most of us use their services is someone more visionary than them made it more convenient than piracy half a generation ago. Let’s remind them there’s an alternative.
I have like 5 alternates I would use before Spotify.
Well bully for you
A VPN is a must if you wanna go down this route
Soulseek (and I recommend the Nicotine+ client over the official one) is a fantastic source for all music in all formats, and particularly obscure off-label shit you won’t get anywhere else. You’ll even have some success finding audiobooks there, although this is very hit-and-miss. I wish audiobook pirates would use it more heavily. It’s P2P, like Napster used to be. You’ll have to share something or you’ll get auto-ignored by most users.
RuTracker is a great non-private/non-ratio-monitoring torrent site for music (does require a free account though). I’ve never had a single torrent from there that wasn’t seemingly seeded by a Godzilla’s dick. Obviously it’s in Russian, but there’s really no difficulty navigating around. The only thing you might struggle with is signing up for an account, but just have your favourite translation tool open in another tab 👍
If you don’t mind slow download speeds (from the likes of RapidGator), I enjoy Exystence. It’s a blog that shares link to the latest albums and offers both lossy and lossless versions. Nice RSS subscription to have.
If you do find yourself using RapidGator a lot, don’t waste money buying a sub directly from them, it’s insanely pricey. Instead, get a reseller like Real Debrid, which costs like 10% as much and also covers you for about two-dozen other file hosters. I highly recommend putting as much distance between your credit card and the company as possible, just for safety reasons. Using PaySafeCard is fine, as Real Debrid will never see your details in that case. I don’t have any specific reason to be weary of them, I just don’t trust random/small/hitherto unheard of companies as a rule.
All good advice. I used to find a lot of stuff by entering “site:rutracker.org” behind my query in my favorite search engine - don’t know if that still works but I never needed an account there…
Never stopped. Get your own mp3s kids.
You’re way better off with your own music collection. That is what I have. I use Tauon music box it handles large playlists well.
I mean, the Spotify CEO invests in AI weaponry being used to murder kids in Gaza so the morally correct thing to do would be to leave Spotify over that.
Even if your not in the UK you should go back to piracy. Steal from corporations as frequently as possible
Already using Spotify to pirate music.
ReVanced? Or a Spotify downloader?
Just a web-based downloader, I’m patient and simple:p
Zotify
ngl, Spotify has become hot ass these days
My favorite part is when the AI DJ plays some dumb song it’s previously served up repeatedly, and then tells me how much I like it because I listen to it so often. I’d never choose to listen to it on my own, and the only reason I hear it is because Spotify keeps cramming it down my throat.
Not Spotify’s fault here, though. Shit legislation.
There are fans of Spotify?
It’s their silly little way of saying conned subscription holders.
I could tell Spotify was trash when I first heard about it. That Spotify decided to enshitify their already bad site makes it even worse.
I’m just as mystified as you.
The only time I interact with the service is when I’m sent a link to a cool band/song and I wind up on the site. “Oh, this again.” I really have zero concept of fandom for something like this.
as an independent artist I just wanna add: the best thing you can do to support artists and bands is to buy directly / on bandcamp. spotify pays shit to artists, you need millions of listeners to get any meaningful amount of cash
of course that isn’t a sustainable option if you listen to a lot of different music. so piracy is an option that I wouldn’t mind. hell, if you like my stuff and just write to me I’ll send you mp3s for free
This exactly. Pirating is still preventing the artists from getting paid for their work. Choose to buy albums from companies like Bandcamp over just simply stealing their work.
Just do it.
Flac > Spotify.
