I Stopped Paying for Spotify... Now I Might Go Crawling Back

Is it possible to use an inherently evil platform to do some good?

Hate the Game, Not the Player

People in my comments love to tell me that regardless of any nuance I introduce to the topic, if I (or any of my readers, for that matter) use Spotify at all, it means I simply do not care about artists — full stop.

One time when I mentioned that I would be getting rid of my Spotify subscription, but that I wouldn’t outright decry anyone who doesn’t follow suit, somebody responded with “OK, Streamer.”

I mean, that’s pretty funny, but come on.

There are many reasons that people continue to use Spotify, even if they don’t support their shitty payment practices or shady as hell AI proliferation. Cost, convenience, lack of space for physical media, you name it. Folks can and do support artists through other means: concerts, merch, promotion on socials, Bandcamp purchases, or hey… subscribing to their Substacks, even!

Anyway, that’s the first soapbox of several I’ll be on today, but I needed to get it clear from the get — you can hate on Spotify all you want, but I’m not entertaining the notion that simply using it confers amorality somehow.¹

A Tidal Wave of Regret

The fact that Spotify is garbage isn’t news.

The music community’s longstanding battle cry has now become a mainstream cause célèbre since more and more of the streaming service's outrageous behavior has come to light.

Sometimes I wonder if I was an “average” consumer, if it would be easier for me to cut ties with streaming, to revert back to the old ways and get by. But I love discovering new music, and I love sharing new music, and have really pushed myself to curate and write as a way of fulfilling my needs and helping support emerging artists.

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Indie Scientist

, Central Tendency

I admit I’m not immune to pressure; this most recent wave of anti-Spotify sentiment was the last push I needed to cancel my premium membership. I could still access the new music discovery tools that I needed with the free version, right? And my playlists wouldn’t go anywhere, so nothing of value would be lost in the end. It seemed like the least I could do.

I transferred all of my playlists (and then some) over to Tidal and went full steam ahead.

A month later, I’m frustrated and full of regret.