this post was submitted on 22 Sep 2026
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Spotify is now gatekeeping new music to Premium subscribers, but the blame lies elsewhere (Updated) (www.androidauthority.com)
submitted 4 days ago by sabreW4K3@lazysoci.al to c/piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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[–] Ilandar@lemmy.today 68 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Conversely, some commenters defended the strategy, arguing that free-tier users shouldn’t expect day-and-date parity with paying subscribers, especially since Spotify’s ad-supported tier contributes a fraction of the per-stream payouts compared to Premium accounts.

Always amusing when Spotify subscribers claim to care about musicians. If you actually cared, you would not be paying for a streaming service and especially not Spotify.

[–] dan@upvote.au 28 points 4 days ago (3 children)

Even if you do want to use a streaming service rather than buying music directly, Tidal pays something like 3x as much as Spotify per stream. They were also the first major streaming service to support lossless audio (11 years ago!) and the first to take a stance against AI-generated music. They label AI music, block royalties (people that upload AI music don't get paid for it), and let users filter out all AI music.

[–] detren@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 days ago

I used Tidal for about a year but yeah the user experience is quite lacking. I moved to Apple Music as an iPhone user and it’s been a very nice middle ground for me personally. I still buy music and merch to support the artists I love though.

[–] joulethief@discuss.tchncs.de 21 points 4 days ago (3 children)

I gave Tidal a shot this year. Lasted about 3 months before the user experience pushed me – go on and scold me – back to Spotify.

I listen to music in my car a lot which has an aftermarket Android head unit fitted. Within the first week of my trial they revamped the UI, which entailed not being able to add the currently playing song to a playlist UNLESS I leave the player view, go SEARCH the title and select it from the results. That's something I'm definitely NOT doing while driving.

This in itself would be a dealbreaker for me if it wasn't for Spotify's awful business practices. So I tried to ignore it. But even then, I got nowhere close to the amount of artists and tracks that I discovered each week when on Spotify. I noticed how I listened to music less and less each day because it was either frustrating or meant listening to the same songs over and over.

I'm actually kind of embarrassed to be back on Spotify because of all the reasons mentioned in this thread (and everywhere else, obviously). But I need music to stay sane, I can't deal with it being such a pain.

[–] NotSteve_@lemmy.ca 5 points 3 days ago

I'm actually in basically the exact same situation but trying to stick to Tidal, if only just because I can't go back to not having AI slop songs automatically hidden but I do notice how much better the recommendations are on Spotify whenever I open it again

[–] LadyMeow@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 3 days ago

It’s hard to scold, I think tidal is OK, but there is another… Napster! And it pays even more than tidal, like last I checked it wasn’t even close. But alas, their UX is awful. Awful enough I chose tidal for the time being. :/

[–] dan@upvote.au 3 points 3 days ago

Makes sense. Tidal's UI/UX definitely isn't as nice.

I'm using my Plex server with Plexamp and CDs I've ripped. I don't listen to a lot of newer music, so discovery isn't as important. I use the free version of Google Play Music for discovery sometimes, but there's a huge amount of AI slop.

[–] Ilandar@lemmy.today 9 points 4 days ago

From memory, Spotify is quite an outlier in terms of how bad it is. Like almost any competitor is better. People are going out of their way to choose the worst option and then virtue signalling online about it lol

[–] Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Sounds like Spotify sock puppet accounts lol.

[–] RickyRigatoni@piefed.zip 1 points 3 days ago

I wish. There are just too many people out there with a superiority complex who thinks everyone else is beneath them.

[–] Wobble@lemmy.dbzer0.com 27 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Capitalism brings innovation!

Today we get the entirely fake fairytale meaningless fictitious artificial digital scarcity!

[–] AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works 7 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Eh. 3 days delay to listen to new music releases isn't the end of the world. Especially if you're doing it for free. Go do something else in the meantime.

#firstworldproblems

[–] Wobble@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 3 days ago

It wasn't a problem until now, its an artificial limit that serves no purpose but to deprive the people.

You're not doing it 'for free' because you are the product.

[–] dan@upvote.au 6 points 4 days ago

Blame UMG - Spotify have to comply with their demands or they'll lose their license.

Although... I don't see this as any different from movies coming to the cinema then to paid streaming before coming to free streaming services. Free users contribute significantly less revenue, which isn't great during the initial rush when a new album or movie is released.

[–] ModernRisk@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Would this be bypassable with Spicetify?

[–] Samiaouuu@jlai.lu 10 points 4 days ago (2 children)

It is bypassable by not using Spotify, there are better services (even for free)

[–] greatwhitebuffalo41@slrpnk.net 11 points 3 days ago (2 children)

A list might be helpful in a comment like this.

[–] Samiaouuu@jlai.lu 4 points 3 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Sorry you're right 😭

It's a piracy sub so I suggest

  • monochrome.tf (open source), it takes its music from legal services so whatever you're listening on Spotify is probably on it. There are mobile apps. It's basically a premium service for free without data stealing. You can rip songs and keep .flac files if you want. The dream, but as it's unofficial it might be a bit less reliable.

For more trad legal alternatives, there are :

  • Deezer ; basically french Spotify with way better sound quality, there's also a free version which is less restrictive than Spotify's.
  • YouTube Music ; nice but the quality is terrible.
  • Qobuz ; the best (still french) but more expensive, you can also buy drm-free music and keep .flac files.

The others are more or less the same, still better than Spotify which is a ripoff at this point.

You should really try Monochrome, and Qobuz if you have the budget (~15€ I think?) :)

[–] greatwhitebuffalo41@slrpnk.net 2 points 3 days ago

I wanted to like deezer but it just wasn't my thing. I'll have to check that out though

[–] LodeMike@lemmy.today 0 points 3 days ago

YouTube Music with a self-sovereign/selfhosted frontend.

[–] LodeMike@lemmy.today 2 points 3 days ago

Probably not as it's at the account level.

[–] Tabitha@hexbear.net 2 points 3 days ago

most new music is probably AI music, so does this mean paying users get shit on first?