• BraveSirZaphod@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      I don’t get why anyone would use the free tier - not being able to choose songs would actually drive me insane, let alone the ads - but $11 monthly for essentially all the music anyone could ever want, plus solid playlists and recommendations, is a perfectly good value for me. Admittedly, I listen to music all the time and it’s a pretty big part of my life, so it’s an easy sell.

      I guess the free tier is still an improvement over radio, but regardless, producing and distributing music has costs, and I’m more than happy to pay for it. Given that Spotify isn’t even profitable, having lost about a billion dollars last year, I’m not sure how long this situation will last, but for the time being, I really don’t mind it.

      • Iceblade@lemdit.com
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        1 year ago

        11$/month is 132$/yr. That’s a significant amount of money - about the same as my car insurance, broadband or phone bill. Putting a bunch of good music in a playlist and letting it roll is nice enough, especially with a 3rd party app to mute ads automatically. Besides, I don’t feel sorry for Spotify. The reason they’re hemorrhaging money isn’t a lack of profitability, but due to the massive royalties going to record companies.

        E: spelling

        • BraveSirZaphod@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          For the median American that works full-time, who earns around $56,000, the cost of Spotify is 0.2% of their income.

          Obviously everyone is in their own financial situation and for some people that will still be a burden. But for sake of comparison, in 1989, the average cost of cable TV was $18, and that’s of course in 1989 dollars. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to say that $11 for unlimited access to basically all music at any time is a pretty good value for the money.

          That said, if it is still onerous to someone, they’re obviously not in ideal circumstances and I’m really not gonna fault them for just pirating.

          • Iceblade@lemdit.com
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            1 year ago

            Swedish student (Median full-time wage here is 35’790 USD equivalents before an avg ~30% payroll tax), not taking loans, working part time teaching (and occasionally nursing) to make ends meet, so yeah, pretty cash strapped atm.

            Also, note that I already do have access to all the music in the world for free via youtube if I want something specific, or spotify for “radio style” infinite listening. 1440SEK/132USD is for added conveniences. No real need to pirate anything.

        • Whirlybird@aussie.zone
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          1 year ago

          If $132 a year for unlimited access to pretty much all the music in the world is a significant amount of money to you then Spotify is the least of your worries.

          Also your car insurance is $130 a year? What are you driving, a cardboard box and only in your living room? Your broadband only costs $132 a year?

          Press X to doubt.

          • Iceblade@lemdit.com
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            1 year ago

            Swedish student (Median wage here is 35’790 USD equivalents), not taking loans, working part time teaching (and occasionally nursing) to make ends meet, so yeah, pretty cash strapped atm.

            As for my car, not a cardboard box, but apparently there are 25 packs that cost as much as I bought it for five years ago. Just the mandatory traffic insurance, but it ends up at almost exactly same price.

            Also, note that I already do have access to all the music in the world for free via youtube if I want something specific, or spotify for “radio style” infinite listening. 1440SEK/132USD is for added conveniences.

    • chillbo_baggins@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      It’s convenient. It’s where all my playlists are… that said, I’m open to alternatives?

      • Aopen@discuss.tchncs.de
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        1 year ago
        1. Listen on YT with adblock
        2. Download audio with Newpipe (OPUS 160kbps)
        3. Manage files with Amaze
        4. Listen with VLC

        I like this model, because YT has niche creators and I dont have to care about “Spotify changes X” news. Note: I have 1.5GB songs stored locally and listen ~30 minutes daily. I acknowledge discovering new songs is slower

      • Mothra@mander.xyz
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        1 year ago

        You can just use NewPipe background player. NewPipe lets you create and save playlists. No ads.

      • can@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        Well, piracy, but I’d say apple music or tidal, etc are even better than Spotify. There are services for transferring your playlists.

        Some are paid but if it’s just a one time transfer you could do them all in a free trial window.

      • krimsonbun@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        1 year ago

        download mp3s from youtube. Use rhythmbox on linux and metro on android. Metro even tries to find the lyrics online

          • genoxidedev1@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            Yup, can understand if your library is small, but for bigger libraries that’s definitely the most inconvenient thing you can do.

            Speaking from experience because I was basically forced to do it that way when I didn’t have regular internet access yet. My library was longer than 50 days. Just Hip-Hop alone was above 100GB.

            I used to find a shitton of music that way, but the inconvenience was real. Worst was music that I had to tag myself for example. Love mp3tag but that’s shit.

          • krimsonbun@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            1 year ago

            I find it inconvenient to have limited skips and depend on one service to give you the song you want with the version you want. Also spotify ui doesn’t make sense to me, things just don’t work at times. Not to mention the ads.

              • krimsonbun@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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                1 year ago

                I don’t like paid services, especially when you can get the same or most of the same stuff for free. It’s just not worth it for me, so that is my suggested alternative, doesn’t work for everyone.

                • zpoex@sh.itjust.works
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                  1 year ago

                  Not really trying to argue with you but we were not discussing your preference haha😅 Just trying to say spotify premium is pretty convenient at a cheap price

                • can@sh.itjust.works
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                  1 year ago

                  Unlike movie and tv streaming music streaming convenience is no contest for piracy if you’re an enthusiastic.

                  And this is coming from someone would download albums and discogrpahies, using programs to meticulously tag and organize them. I wish I had the time and patience now, and for the highlights of my collection I will, but with my music craving a music stream subscription is well worth it.

        • ඞmir@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          Mp3s from YT are garbage quality, it’s double transcoding from YT’s already low quality input.

          • edric@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            Yeah. If you’re gonna be downloading music from youtube, might as well just torrent flac or at least 320kbps quality instead.

          • Destragras@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            You can download audio from YouTube as 160kbps opus files, which aren’t lossless sure but it’s the highest quality you can get from YouTube if alternate means aren’t an option.

            • redfellow@sopuli.xyz
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              1 year ago

              And that’s trusting that whoever uploaded the track had a good quality source. And it’s still double encoded.

              • Pulp@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                1 year ago

                Any official uploads from recent years are going to be just fine. And if not then maybe their spotify upload is broken too

              • ඞmir@lemmy.ml
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                1 year ago

                Well if you save the opus or aac it’s only single lossy compression, not double unless the uploader used a lossy file as their input. But if that was the case, ripping mp3 would be triple lossy compression…

              • Destragras@kbin.social
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                1 year ago

                For mp3 sure, but for opus standards 160kbps is great. I read that 128kbps is generally considered the most you need but 160kbps smooths over any artifacts, assuming the source file doesn’t have them.

            • ඞmir@lemmy.ml
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              1 year ago

              Then you probably don’t know any better because the vast majority of YT uploads are terrible quality. If you have anywhere near decent headphones/earbuds you can hear the difference immediately.

              • krimsonbun@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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                1 year ago

                Well I’ve used spotify with and without headphones on popular phones, I can’t tell the difference from youtube. I usually download the music directly from the original uploader.

        • jochem@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          I was big into downloading before streaming services were a thing. Music streaming is one of the few services that’s totally worth my money: no hassle and I rarely have to resort to other platforms to find what I want (very different from video streaming, which totally sucks when it comes to that).

          • ribboo@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            100% this. Paying $12 a month for basically all music I’ll ever want to listen to, is just an amazing deal. It’s so convenient. Felt the same when Netflix came about. But now when I need like 6 services, and there’s still lots not on them. Piracy is just so much more convenient.

            • can@sh.itjust.works
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              1 year ago

              Felt the same when Netflix came about. But now when I need like 6 services, and there’s still lots not on them. Piracy is just so much more convenient.

              Yep, that’s the step they forgot: be more convenient than the pirates.

        • Psychonaut1969@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          Can I use any of those at the same time I am playing a game on ps3/ps4/ps5 they way they have integrated spotify? I use spotify because it is available on the devices I use. I would use bandcamp on them if it were an option as I love my collection there but, it is not available on many of the devices I use.

          • krimsonbun@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            1 year ago

            personally I don’t find that convinience worth it for the money/ads and other inconveniences, but that varies from person to person

        • glacier@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          1 year ago

          That is what I do, however it is very tedious when you want to listen to full albums, and add info to the file such as the album art and artist. Services like Spotify also sync your Library and playlist automatically across devices.

          • Sekoia@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            1 year ago

            I made myself a python script to automatically tag and download entire albums from youtube at a time. I use syncthing to automatically sync it all. Quality isn’t the best but I can’t tell anyway so

          • DessertStorms@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            Fwiw, some youtube to mp3 converters will let you convert full playlists (don’t remember which, but there are a few).

    • Whirlybird@aussie.zone
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      1 year ago

      Because it’s fantastic? Because it has almost all the music out there? Because it has an app on every device under the sun? Because it has amazing artist discovery? Because it lets you know of upcoming shows in your area?

      Why wouldn’t you use Spotify if you’re a music fan? I’ve got 200gb+ of music on my NAS that I use Plexamp to listen to but I still subscribe to and use Spotify more.

      • can@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        I’m saying use one of the many streaming alternatives.

        Do people use “Spotify” as a generic term for steaming?

        • Whirlybird@aussie.zone
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          1 year ago

          Do people use “Spotify” as a generic term for steaming?

          No, they use it to mean streaming from Spotify…?

          You asked why people use spotify still, and I answered with many reasons why people specifically use spotify. Not every streaming service is the same, and spotify is widely regarded as the best.

    • SuiXi3D@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      You nailed it. People’ve been using it for so long they don’t want to use any number of paid or free services to automatically move all their playlists and whatnot over to a different service.

        • iHUNTcriminals@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          Random usually sucks for everything that I’ve used.

          They should have two… True random and one that ‘radioifies’ your library.

    • Bobby Turkalino@lemmy.yachts
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      1 year ago

      If you have an eclectic music taste and don’t spend your life next to a computer, there’s practically no other option

      • rockhandle@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Tidal, Deezer, Qobuz, Funkwhale, Apple Music, Youtube Music, just to name a few. Spotify has no shortage of competition.

        • Bobby Turkalino@lemmy.yachts
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          1 year ago

          My point is there’s little actual difference between them. Identical services provided by greedy corporations with shitty track records

          • rockhandle@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            You said there’s no other option, I just listed some options. Also Funkwhale is decentralised, there’s no corporation backing it. Ofc, you can also just download the music you like.

            • Bobby Turkalino@lemmy.yachts
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              1 year ago

              😂 practically no other option, my friend. Haven’t heard of Funkwhale though, sounds interesting. And no, as I mentioned in my first comment, downloading isn’t feasible for people with eclectic tastes cuz I just can’t keep up with my spontaneous “need” to listen to that one album that hasn’t even crossed my mind in 20 years

      • can@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        Apple music, Tidal, etc.

        Spotify is funding military AI tech. That’s enough for me. I’m on android but I’d still rather use Apple Music, plus they pay artists slightly more, and tidal pays more than them.

        • Bobby Turkalino@lemmy.yachts
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          1 year ago

          I hate to tell you but everyone is funding scary military tech, even if you’re not an American tax payer. If you’ve flown on a Boeing plane, used Microsoft software, worn Oakley sunglasses… all that revenue goes to companies who do or support that research

            • Bobby Turkalino@lemmy.yachts
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              1 year ago

              I mean I just named some of them, my point is you can’t avoid funding the military unless you live under a rock. Such is the military industrial complex

    • Refurbished Refurbisher@lemmy.sdf.org
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      1 year ago

      Basically exclusively because of Spotify Connect and the network effect. A lot of the music I listen to isn’t even available on Spotify.

      I prefer Deezer’s recommendation algorithm. I don’t have experience wity other streaming services.