it's time to ditch spotify

– Jul 3, 2025

music

writing

it is time to once and for all to ditch spofity. fortunately i have been preparing for this moment.

why is now the time? well, it's always been the time, because spotify's streaming model pays little to nothing for all but the most successful artists. (2 million streams only gets you about 5 grand a year.)

but more specifically, it's now because the very mid-90s bond villain looking spotify ceo daniel ek has invested €600 million of his dollars into a company called Helsing, which VERY CREEPILY describes itself in shockingly orwellian terms on its own website: "We provide precision mass and autonomous capabilities to democracies so that they can deter and protect." translation: "we enable the global north to kill whoever they want in the global south while making it look more ethical and justified than it otherwise would." the company is currently producing "its own drones, aircrafts, and submarines, and is developing a new ‘Centaur’ system that will integrate 'advanced AI pilots' into the cockpits of fighter aircrafts", Music Business Worldwide reports. some artists and at least one personal favorite label (Kalahari Oyster Cult) are removing their music from spotify following this news and we salute them.

that's obviously bad enough. but spotify AI grossness doesn't stop there. the more absurd side of the story is the plethora of very apparently AI-generated artists that have appeared on spotify and are garnering serious numbers of streams. now, even putting to side the debate over whether AI music is "real" music, this trend is bad because it takes streams away from human artists, especially as it would obviously behoove spotify to promote these AI artists and make them artificially popular using their highly influential recommendation algorithm.

so yes, let's ditch spotify. but then, how do we listen to music? as i said, i've been preparing for this. i honestly haven't used spotify much since it became the main way people listen to music (though cards on the table, i am on my sister's family plan and use it to communicate with my WiiM Home on occasion, but i am planning to replace that with an open source DIY box when i find the time).

here's what i do and what i plan to do. some of it might work for you and some not. some might be a bit technical, but part of my vision is to manage the technical side of things for family and friends, so maybe send this to the nerdiest music lover in your life.

i rent a remote server that i manage myself (costs about $20/month for 1TB of space).
on this server, i store my personal collection of music files, which i have been meticulously gathering and organizing for honestly probably about 20 years now (but you can start anytime!).
i install software on this server (beets) that lets me manage this collection and keep it organized.
i also install software on this server (jellyfin) that lets me stream the music, make playlists, download files to my computer, and also supports various mobile apps.
i buy music from bandcamp, which in addition to having a decent mobile app, allows you to download lossless audio files of anything you buy. so i import those files into my music collection. (latest purchase: Split 1 by TSVI and DJ Babatr, very good).
do i pirate music? umm, never. but if i were to, i would do my best to buy as much independent music as i can afford on bandcamp and not feel too bad stumbling upon the audio files of majorly successful or nepo baby artists. and hypothetically, i would add those files to my collection.
i make this server available to friends and family so that they can enjoy this collection
in the future, i'd like to make it easier for people to add music they've purchased to the collection; get back that "let me borrow/rip this CD" feeling.

the platforms are getting really bad. one thing we can do is try to make our own digital infrastructure.