cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/61959659
Spotify has been pissing me off recently. Repeated pop up (internal) ads, and now this. Are there any alternatives that don’t require selfhosting?
I’ve been using Qobuz, it’s a French alternative (so, not supporting Google or other American companies!) I’ve really enjoyed the selection and some of their suggestions are fantastic. They also have really high quality options for streaming/download which I’m too tone deaf to fully appreciate.
yeah I didn’t get that either but pretty sure the old one started working after I put the new one somewhere else.
I’ve just switched to Tidal and it seems pretty good.
I ran into a bunch of AI slop on Tidal. It kept being on artist pages that I really enjoy. For example Against Me! is one of my favorite bands but some AI sloptist named their slop band Against Me. Tidal has no way to separate these two names and everything shows up on one page. To make things worse there’s no way to report this except by emailing to the artist being ripped off and hoping they see your email.
I found it so frequently, roughly 6 or 7 times in 3 months, that I cancelled and moved on to the next service, YouTube Music. It’s not necessarily better or worse in my experience but they can differentiate between Against Me! and Against Me and I have yet to discover a fake song since I switched about 3 months ago.
I’m not sure about the support I’m giving to Google, I kind of fucking hate it, but I have very very few complaints about the service. My main complaint is there is no dedicated TV app, it goes through the default YouTube app and that is significantly worse at finding playlists or surfacing new music.
I just couldn’t do Tidal any longer with the slopfest. And I left Spotify behind when news broke they were showing ICE ads. I’ll be honest I’ve not heard that YouTube is showing ICE ads but it would not surprise me.
Well, doesn’t have a tv app (that I know of at least) but for what it’s worth, I’ve been using Qobuz which is a little French outfit. Great selection, a vehement anti ai slop attitude and I believe that per stream they pay out higher than most services.
I’ve been quite satisfied with Tidal for years, except for the exact thing you’re mentioning. It got a lot worse in the last year, and it happened to some pretty popular bands too, like Muse. Someone is uploading “albums” with a literal Gemini watermark on them under their name and they take months to get taken down. At first it made me wonder if they lost their minds and fell into the slopfest
I like the quality and the higher artist payouts from Tidal. It is kinda buggy, though, and I miss things like listening parties or Spotify Connect.
Yaa, plus Spotify has lossless too now, and wayy more niche artists. As much as I hate Spotify, it’s just not something I can part with. Though I support the artists I listen to in many other ways anyway. There’s also Spicetify which is another thing I may not want to part with xD.
Spotify still doesn’t have Atmos, though, right? I know it’s kind of a gimmick, but there’s some pieces I really like it in.
