'Death to Spotify' Event Draws Interest From Some Musicians to Try Alternatives (theguardian.com)
- Reference: 0179763746
- News link: https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/25/10/12/1756208/death-to-spotify-event-draws-interest-from-some-musicians-to-try-alternatives
- Source link: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/oct/12/spotify-boycott-artists
> This month, indie musicians in San Francisco gathered for a series of talks called Death to Spotify, where attenders explored "what it means to decentralize music discovery, production and listening from capitalist economies". The events, held at Bathers library, featured speakers from indie station KEXP, labels Cherub Dream Records and Dandy Boy Records, and DJ collectives No Bias and Amor Digital. What began as a small run of talks quickly sold out and drew international interest. People as far away as Barcelona and Bengaluru emailed the organizers asking how to host similar events.
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> The talks come as the global movement against Spotify edges into the mainstream. In January, music journalist Liz Pelly released Mood Machine, a critical history arguing the streaming company has ruined the industry and turned listeners into "passive, uninspired consumers". Spotify's model, she writes, depends on paying artists a pittance — less still if they agree to be "playlisted" on its Discovery mode, which rewards the kind of bland, coffee-shop muzak that fades neatly into the background... The Death to Spotify organizers say their goal is not necessarily to shut the app down. "We just want everyone to think a little bit harder about the ways they listen to music," says [event co-founder] Manasa Karthikeyan. "It just flattens culture at its core if we only stick to this algorithmically built comfort zone."
So the goal was "down with algorithmic listening, down with royalty theft, down with AI-generated music," according to the event's other co-founder, Stephanie Dukich.
Basically some artists "are questioning whether it's doing much for them," says a professor of music at the University of Texas at Austin. The article cites performers who are trying Spotify alternatives, like pop-rock songwriter Caroline Rose, who released her new album only on vinyl and Bandcamp. "I find it pretty lame that we put our heart and soul into something and then just put it online for free," Rose says.
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/oct/12/spotify-boycott-artists
Re: (Score:2)
They're commies in spirit only, they're looking to get paid MORE, but don't dare to call it capitalism. For example, "depends on paying artists a pittance" and "just put it online for free", so apparently they like getting paid. I can sympathize that streaming music decimated album sales, I get it, but that old model is gone, and it's not coming back. If someone is looking to make a living playing music, they'd better learn to write music a LOT of people want. Is that selling out? Yes, of course it is. If n
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Sounds like they need more capitalism.
Silly (Score:1)
I've gained a lot of respect for Spotify as a subscriber and now investor. One of my favorite pastimes is music discovery and its suggestions have introduced me to so many new great bands, many of which I end up go seeing live now that they have integrated nearby event notifications for followed artists. That's where I buy show tickets and merch. The ai is good enough where my weekly new song suggeetions have at least an 80% like rate.
That's what keeps me coming back to Spotify. They're only adding feat
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> I've gained a lot of respect for Spotify as a subscriber and now investor. One of my favorite pastimes is music discovery and its suggestions have introduced me to so many new great bands
If that's what you really think then you should support this action. Spotify's discovery process has been completely enshitified in the past decade and used to be far better. I discovered a whole world of new music in the past, today ... most of what is being pushed to me is forgettable and other services provide far better discovery.
Concept is being framed poorly (Score:2)
> what it means to decentralize music discovery, production and listening from capitalist economies
This one is pretty easy. Music would become a hobby, not a profession. Either treat your profession as a profession, or you aren't going to make much money doing it.
Musicians are free to create some kind of "employee-owned" distribution network for their music. But that network would still need to compete in our capitalistic economy. I think it's a great idea and would love for it to happen in music and plenty of other industries. We just shouldn't ignore that to be successful it needs to be run like any ot
I have a more complex opinion (Score:2)
I like stuff that is less popular. The Spotify recommendation robot is excellent at recommending great new bands. It has never recommended stuff I disliked and it recommended lots of stuff I like a lot. Many of the bands I found were either hobbyists or had a very small number of followers, but they were all excellent. In the past the only way to discover bands like this would be to live in the same city where they lived and know somebody who knew the band
On the other side, Spotify pays VERY poorly and any
I Use Amazon music (Score:2)
I buy music from Amazon. I don't use spotify.
(And I don't stream the music, I download the .mp3 s and copy them to my mobile devices.
I don't know what the artists share of that revenue is, but I'd guess its better than spotify.
I've Said It a Million Times Now (Score:2)
If you want to make money in the music industry, the last person you want to be is the person making the music.
Spotify Has Gotten Really Sleazy (Score:2)
Spotify recently alleged that one of my band's albums was on a playlist designed to have bot listeners boost plays. The problem is that anyone can add songs to a playlist, and despite the fact that we didn't do it they're treating us as guilty until proven innocent. They fined us more money than we ever made from that album and the fine will be deducted from our total earnings. Also, that album is now banned on Spotify and the only way to get it back on there is to re-record it so that it doesn't get rec
Just don’t use it (Score:3, Insightful)
If artists don’t like Spotify, just don’t use it.
Re: (Score:2)
Anybody else remember Napster and Limewire? This has been tried before and it failed mis... Wait. They were a resounding success and nearly drove the recording industry out of business.
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Mp3.com was allowing artists to make good livings without the need for large corporations. They got sued out of business and then bought out.
Like I mentioned elsewhere but playing field isn't even. And we fired all the referees
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Music would survive without the music industry. What put an end to Napster was Apple and Amazon being able to sell music. I find it strange that Spotify is as successful as it is when Apple rode the idea of owning rather than renting music to its success. The grandparent poster has the right of it, if artists don't like Spotify's terms or business model then don't do business with them. Cut a deal with Amazon or Apple and sell digital copies of an album for $5 and people will buy it. Or just go the Radiohea
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They need to do more than just not use it. They need to create an alternative distribution method for their music. And ensure this new network doesn't devolve into something that looks just like Spotify in the future. It is a pretty good goal, but it certainly won't be easy.
Re: (Score:3)
Let's see how well that goes over with the record company.
If you don't like the internet (Score:3)
Just don't use it. That's you.
Spotify has done all sorts of nasty anti-competitive crap in order to make it the only real option if you want access to an audience.
Like the old speech from Courtney Love, [1]https://www.gerryhemingway.com... [gerryhemingway.com]
They control the access to the venues and the access to mass media in general. You can throw some music out there on the internet but without big money you want getting anywhere. And if somebody starts to get a foothold big money moves in and buys them out.
Li
[1] https://www.gerryhemingway.com/piracy
Re: (Score:2)
Very true... hell, we don't even design the website anymore... we go to wix or something and use stock layouts and graphics (even though it's not hard to do it in Notepad if you know your crap).
Of course, you're assuming that the music these 'musicians' are making isn't just noise that uses samples of other people's music as 'their own' or just Billie Eilish on LSD slowed down by 90%.
(I bookmarked that link to read later in full... sounds very interesting, and she sounds very coherent)
I'm pretty sure, if I
Re: (Score:2)
See this article [1]https://www.reddit.com/r/BandC... [reddit.com] for
"Bandcamp vs. Spotify? What are your thoughts as an artist? (here's my personal experience)"
I have no experience or opinion myself.
[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/BandCamp/comments/xu0nvv/bandcamp_vs_spotify_what_are_your_thoughts_as_an/
Re: (Score:2)
It's most likely the record labels who make this decision.
Re: (Score:2)
> If artists don’t like Spotify, just don’t use it.
The world is much more complicated than that. The problem is not that artists don't like Spotify, it's that they are stuck with an monopoly just like the rest of us are in other ways. For example, are you a Linux fan? Hate to be tracked? Just don't use Windows. Oh except if you go to work and suddenly you're forced to by corporate IT, what then?
The issue is the same here. Spotify pays a pittance, screws over artists, promotes the production of AI muzak rubbish, but where else do you go? All the potential cu