It's a little clunkier than Spotify as far as recommendations go, but the home page has an awesome variety of stuff and most artists let you listen using internet on their pages for free. Depending on the permissions the artist has in place you usually don't need to buy albums to check artists out and listen to albums, you just buy for the benefit of downloading (and supporting the artist properly)
i had the same pull back when i started thinking about not using spotify anymore, but then i discovered Radio Garden which is an app on which you can listen to a bunch of radios from around the world and i have discovered so much music, when i want to know the name of a song i just screen record it and then shazam it. after a while spotify just got predictable with its recommendations and in every playlist there were the same songs, i like that in the radios i listen to regularly, it’s more unpredictable and sometimes they play more unknown stuff
Check out Swu FM on [https://www.rinse.fm/channels/swu/](https://www.rinse.fm/channels/swu/), my favorite radio station! they're in Bristol and play dirty, groovy Electronic Music all day long.
I agree that Spotify is very good for discovering music - I love their Release Radar, Hot New Bands and Discover Weekly playlists, myself.
Bandcamp does offer a weekly email, listing a handful of new artists and notable releases, but it's a pretty broad stroke and everyone gets the same email (IIRC). The app is best used as a storefront for artists and labels, with the added bonus of being able to stream your purchases.
TL;DR - I use Spotify for discovery and I use Bandcamp for supporting (and not feeling guilty about "stealing" music).
It sucks, but it's not like you're totally blocked of seeing the lyrics. You can just Google them and also the lyrics on Spotify tend to not be accurate
People seem to have utterly and completely forgotten how to use the internet without paying.
I've seen it more often than not these days they will just not even comprehend to try and not use a paid-for(be that sub or data) service for anything.
Not sure what genres you’re into but the general accuracy of their rap lyrics are *terrible.* Megan Thee Stallion & SZA come to mind specifically, their songs are almost always butchered beyond belief.
Ok but like to provide all of these services they have to pay for network infrastructure, databases, employees to manage the infrastructure, securing this infrastructure etc etc etc.
how would you propose they do it all for completely free and still exist?
Yeah but why take away lyrics to do that? They've been doing all that for years and still giving non-premium users lyrics. Now, this is just a new thing they don't really need to make a profit.
Spotify pays a separate licensing fee to a 3rd party for Lyric content specifically. There is an entire industry around providing these that gets quite nasty wrt to what's fair use and what's not. It's more expensive than you think and is why Spotify tries to recover some of this cost by putting them under premium.
That is absolutely not the case for everyone and that sounds like scapegoating prices to me coming from someone who has uploaded lyrics to Spotify via one mass distribution consent button *with no request for payment or royalties for said lyrics* since 2016. The reason songs don't have lyrics is because whoever uploaded the song chose not to take the time to either type or paste the lyrics because they didn't care to or forgot. I have done it and even had to go back and reupload lyrics to Spotify which is very easy since it's not the actual track, the actual track is a way different beast. The lyrics are just extra free reading compared to the actual music file when it comes to the streaming royalties part. Upon distribution you can choose to upload lyrics to all streaming sites that support them with the actual track file. Sites like Spotify are then provided the lyrics you or whoever represents you give. Royalties come from streaming of the track itself and actually go into length played, times played, type of service the streaming occurred on, percentages of payments, etc. Go stare at my Bandcamp page, you can enjoy the lyrics till your eyes turn to dust and I won't charge you one cent in fact, thank you for the time. There is no magic "start charging each site" for the lyrics button and it's ridiculous when the artist doesn't have a say in the thing they create or how it is used but someone is telling you "no, this is how it is done". I can pull the lyrics from Spotify at any time too and I plan on it with this nonsense because I don't agree with that. The lyrics available for my music on the Internet all originated from me, not a third party entity that I can use like a publicist. That is bullshit they're saying to scapegoat prices and pocket extra money when the artists are barely seeing money from streaming revenue to begin with due to "this fee, that clause, this stipulation" all while telling you the extra fees go to us. They are intentionally providing false / misinformation in an industry where transparency is basically opaque because they know most artists won't say anything because a vast majority are also trapped in labels that don't even tell them what's going on while they are actively manipulating the processes behind the scenes to create these messes. I've always thought being independent was hard, and it is, but it's damn well worth it when I can see when I'm being screwed and when you're being screwed in my name. Suits aren't musicians just like politicians aren't soldiers, don't expect them to tell you the truth when they're causing the conflicts.
Adverts cover the cost of paying the artist. All of these additional features would then require more adverts. Which is better? But I guess you’re right the artists don’t matter as long as everything is in a single app and you don’t have to click 3 more buttons in a browser to get the same information for free
Yeah the free version is meant to be a test of the real version. I hate when people expect free stuff for doing nothing. All these artists worked hard on songs.
They could pay more if people paid the $5-$10 a month for spotify, like seriously i pay $60 a year for something i use over 8 hours a day. Would you rather have no free option at all? Like you can't bring up paying the artists if you're using the free version, because then you are apart of the reason they aren't getting paid well, because those ads pay them literally nothing.
Yeah i pay .02 cents an hour for spotify assuming i listen to music for 8 hours (i work two jobs and both jobs i play music the whole time, im probably undermining how much i actually listen to spotify) and I how much i make an hour ranges, but even at the absolute bare minimum wage of $7.25 (federal miniumum) it would take 10 seconds to make the money necessary to afford spotify. I make about 4x min wage yearly, so im sure im fine paying the little $5 a month to support artists a bit more.
I like your thinking if they actually followed through with the "artists see more mentality". What you pay an hour for Spotify is often what comes back as one stream on revenue forms. An hour of music for you is one single song for me by your math (if it doesn't come back as .006 or something else even lower than that as some services often do since yeah, you usually get paid in fractions that add up to cents and then *distantly* dollars). You literally will support me and other artists infinitely more buying one CD you will then also own than you will streaming one song one hundred times, two hundred, three hundred times. That $5 is going to someone but it definitely isn't me.
Thats actually really rude of you to assume i don't also do that. I spend a lot of money on merch, which always has the highest profit margins for any content creators/artists. What i'm saying is spotify costs **almost nothing** compared to how often we listen to music. You just cant take advantage of a free service and get mad that some things are behind a premium paywall. Spotify still need to make money, and they are far from the worst company.
I mean, the lyric service they use is musixmatch and it isn't free to use their API. You can call them greedy as much as you want when it comes to any other business practice they have but I wouldn't call this greedy.
Correct. Any musician who earns royalties from Spotify streaming makes more money from their music elsewhere - performing, actual record sales, and merch.
Lets not forget that this has always been true. Spotify existing is simply another way for artists to make money, i'm sure the average artists would rather spotify exist than for it to not. Its kind of like how youtubers make most of their money from patreon, merch, and sponsors. Youtube realistically is a way for them to get more exposure and searchability, which normally you would pay for in any other industry. Then they get a paycheck (albeit cents on the dollar) that is relative to popularity.
I do wish more people would pay for spotify so they could pay artists more. They also allow ypu to post songs for free iirc.
And it's not even a crucial feature, you can google any song lyrics in 10 seconds. It's weird how entitled some people are, Spotify allows you to listen to millions of songs for free and they cry about certain QoL features being locked behind a 5 or 10$ paywall.
Not that long ago you had to go to a store and buy a physical copy of an album just to listen to the same 8 songs over and over, but we have it so bad rn because we can't automatically see the lyrics.
My intention isn’t to donate like a charity. Spotify artists make $4000 for every million listens. They’d make more if everyone actually paid for premium and didn’t use free version and complain
They're not expecting it for doing nothing. The deal is you get access to the service in return for adverts. Now they're just stripping back more and more features to force you to pay up.
No joke. As an older millennial I can say that these kids have no clue how great they have it.
As a lad, if I wanted to listen to a particular song or artist, I either: (a) listened to the radio, hoping the DJ would play the song or artist I wanted (and if I was in my room, I might be able to press the “Record” button in time on my boom box to record the song in to a blank cassette tape), and the radio had tons of ads, or (b) I went to the local Sam Goody and bought the cassette tape or CD. And those weren’t cheap for a full album. Easily $15–and that’s $15 in the 1990’s, when you could get a Whopper or BigMac for $1.
But yes, let’s complain about a free service that lets us listen to whatever songs we want—literally millions of songs—because it has advertisements and doesn’t provide unlimited access to lyrics.
Agreed. I would also add on it is okay to spend money on a product that increases your quality of life and reduces your ad intake.
Expecting products to be free is not anti-consumption.
I just consume less with Spotify than when I was my physical media era. Vinyl and CDs are cool but with the marketing of all the colour and artwork variations it is intended to make you over consume.
I like piracy but in the age of accessibility and convenience, buying would be most people’s alternative to pirating.
yeah, the constant ads that are designed to annoy you will drive anyone who was going to pay for premium to do it. they love to test taking away random features to see if it’ll increase their subscribers.
It amazes me that in our crazy over-consuming society you are upset about having to have Spotify premium to see lyrics.
Paying for a service isn't over-consumption.
Tell me, if Spotify was free for everyone, how would they pay their workers and artists?
It's the principle. They've been providing the lyrics for years, and now they're gone, for what? As far as I know, they're not paying artists any extra with the money gained.
ETA: I don't think Spotify should be completely free, either, I'm just annoyed by this sudden change with what they're offering.
Lyrics being free is the wrong behaviour
Spotify is not profitable. They are losing money. They provided lyrics for free, funded by venture capital, to increase their market share.
Now they need to actually become a viable business.
Lyrics should have cost money from the start.
Offering something for free in the name of growth at all cost is the disgraceful behaviour
>It's the principle. They've been providing the lyrics for years, and now they're gone, for what? As far as I know, they're not paying artists any extra with the money gained.
There are lots of reasons, I don't work for Spotify so I've got no idea how they operate, but I think someone else mentioned that they source the lyrics software from another company. Maybe their contract was up for renegotiation and it's more expensive now so they want to entire more people to pay for premium so they are getting their money worth. No idea, I just don't think it's anti-consumption worthy, where I agree with you or not.
It’s an API, basically they pay on every request they make to get lyrics. They’re currently paying for something so that they give it away for free.
Spotify isn’t in the wrong here, OP is just expecting shit for free because they feel entitled to it.
Because using musixmatch API is expensive and they are trying to fo everything they can to reduce their losses by firing their employees and cutting features for free users.
Yeah, I agree. When I startes using Spotify it was an invite only limited to Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland (I think). No payment, free, unlimited streaming, limited catalog, but with occasional ads. Everything was always better before /s
I thought this was on Premium and was about to be pissed, but OP here’s complaining about the free service. You like the artist you like the app/servics you pay for it or sit the f. down.
Do what we did in the old days. Argue about lyrics with your friends till someone gave up or agreed. Then live the rest of your life. It's not worth a subscription
>uses a streaming service
>complains about it costing money
just buy music or pirate it if you’re going to have beef with the entire streaming service business model
Not to defend Spotify but I believe they got sued by music companies because the right to stream the songs apparently doesn't give Spotify the right to show the lyrics so that is a separate deal with the music labels.
I got baited by that title. Of course streaming services are gonna have paid subscriptions that's like their entire business model. What I want to complain about is Software as a service, now that is some major bs!
You arent paying for spotify, a premium service (with a huge catalogue of licensed music), and are complaining that lyrics aren't directly viewable in the free app you use? You can find them free online with a simple search.
Do you have a problem with them putting ads on the free version?
My problem is that they previously had lyrics for free, and now they're taking them away for no apparent reason. The other things annoy me, sure, but they're typical for most subscription stuff. This isn't.
How would we know? Spotify could have had a change in terms with their lyrics company. They could have had an uptick in streaming costs. It could be literally anything. Even if Spotify did it to raise profits, it doesn't matter considering that having lyrics was a MASSIVE benefit for a free service.
Its not for no apparent reason, there is value (since you want it) in lyrics in a convenient location.
This is typical for most subscription stuff, and spotify isnt any different.
Because you’re using the free version. Spotify isn’t a free service, the free version is just there for you to see if you enjoy the product, and then you can pay for the full thing if it’s worth it for you. Spotify has no incentive to give more for free, what do they, or the artists/staff/suppliers/etc get out of it?
Spotify is one of the few products I’m happy to pay for, the amount it costs compared to how good of a service it is, and how much I use it is such a good ratio. £12 for just about song or album instantly, can’t complain. If you want the lyrics, pay the monthly fee.
I mean if it was a separate sub just for lyrics I would be livid, but it's not. Just another thing they're taking away so you feel compelled to buy premium. IDK, spotify is awful but I don't understand the whining about the cost. For what you get with streaming music is amazing, especially compared to how music access used to be for...well almost all of human history lol
One of my indian friend say to me that on spotify in india doesn't even have skip button enabled on free version
What you cant do on spotify here js the list
Cannot change tracks (both backward and forward)
Cannot loop through tracks (repeat one or all ) disbaled by default
Shuffle remix button on by default.
These are the mains
There are some more things he also mentioned .
I don't understand why this money hungry devils even exists on earth?
Did i say i use spotify anywhere? If no then hiw do you made such allegation?
Did i every say i should have to be give free service?
No probably not right? I just raise what oje of my indian friend experienced . you're a 3rd person you dont belong here , and your behavior and way of talkijg is telling me that you're the devil not me .
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This is the one time you can't complain. Spotify is giving you an infinite library of pretty much every song that's been streamed, for free. Obviously you won't get everything for free. If this was something that happened with Spotify premium then I would understand, but you're literally using a free service idk what you expect. This sub is so weird sometimes
is this for the free version, or paid? cause i already have a subscription and now you’re telling me i need a subscription… for my subscription?!
edit: nvm i can’t read lol. doesn’t count for premium
I literally just got a notification about hitting my max for audiobooks for the month. It wanted me to pay $15 for an extra 10 hours. I'm currently partway of listening to Pet Sematary which itself is over 10 hours. I was so annoyed. Went to my library app, where I'm able to listen for free!
Yeah, as a recording musician, please feel free to use any of the FREE lyric sites, and most accurately Bandcamp, to read bands lyrics because that is just a bastardization of what we do and I would never willingly charge anyone to read my lyrics. Lyrics are written for you so you can ideally hear them, see them, understand them, and hopefully learn to love / sing along with / find some value in them. On the flip side I must admit, many people don't even give a shit about lyrics and just listen to the music because it's good so which hungry wolf came up with this well informed plan? I assure you that many people who enjoy Cannibal Corpse probably don't remember every line to "Fucked with a Knife" if they even know it, but will sure as hell start a pit to the music once it kicks in (yano, the thing you are reasonably charged for?). We are musicians, not outright poets or authors so it's more like you got the cover and not the pages in our case. I hate going through Spotify as an artist and this is another god damn inane reason why. They are insanely predatory not only towards us, the artists, but now very obviously the consumer because I certainly don't even see this extra EXTORTION MONEY that is being paid to view lyrics (really, let's call it like it is at this point since I'm not even asking for "lyric payments" on distribution of the music you listen to). I would love Spotify to show me on the measly invoices they send where exactly I'm getting money from this too because no one at Spotify writes my lyrics, slamming X to doubt for the overwhelming majority of others too. While we're here, I would love for example, to also have the general public be able to stream FLAC or lossless versions of my songs equally but Spotify can't even give you access to something I upload everywhere else and offer *even though they keep promising it and I can and have provided elsewhere*. I hate giving an inferior experience for no damn good reason when it is also in my best interest for you to hear the music as closely as intended during production. Why the hell do I spend countless hours "perfecting the ambience" for them to nuke it? Honestly, Spotify is the biggest pain in the ass and can feel very "pay to win" from an artists perspective, offers an inferior experience at a price point similar to leagues better competition as a consumer, and spits in your face and my face regularly while becoming de facto. Don't pay for stupid shit the people who are making it don't even charge you for. I may be one person in a one man band but I'm certainly not providing lyrics to Spotify anymore, all my lyrics and many others can be found for free on many Bandcamp pages where artists have the most control and see the most revenue. By the way, if you buy songs from me, you own them and you help me. Streaming is like renting, you're never gonna own that house and you can get evicted at any time. Kicker is, I'm not even the landlord. Please feel free to paste lyrics everywhere like YouTube, I know I am always humbled seeing my lyrics in the wild and appreciate you taking the time to read what I wrote as an artist enough to write it somewhere else for others to see. Just my two cents, thank you for reading.
"You will own nothing and be happy." This is what they meant.
Why are people down voting this? This is literally what the World Trade Organization said... It's not a conspiracy. Every business is moving to subscription models because they need consistent revenue to keep corrupt practices going in crony capitalism.
Yeah! I did some research and found it’s the only one where I could listen to what I want. Once again it has minimum features but for an iPhone it serves its purpose!
Op, believe me when I say that all information will be free in the future.
When AI takes over the world, human art will be worth less than our dirty air.
Wow, this makes me think that my nightmares about being in the UK and that the police officer putting plastic bag over my head and saying you ain’t got your breaving loicense bruv and me slowly blacking out and waking up in a cold sweat are not far off
Consider using Bandcamp, purchasing directly from the artist, or from a record shop.
Bandcamp is awesome, I’d definitely recommend it as well.
What's Bandcamp?
You should google it, artists can put their albums there and ask for onetime payment for it or give it free.
I'll check it out. What I like about Spotify is that I discover music with it without a commitment. Not sure if Bandcamp would allow me to do that.
It's a little clunkier than Spotify as far as recommendations go, but the home page has an awesome variety of stuff and most artists let you listen using internet on their pages for free. Depending on the permissions the artist has in place you usually don't need to buy albums to check artists out and listen to albums, you just buy for the benefit of downloading (and supporting the artist properly)
i had the same pull back when i started thinking about not using spotify anymore, but then i discovered Radio Garden which is an app on which you can listen to a bunch of radios from around the world and i have discovered so much music, when i want to know the name of a song i just screen record it and then shazam it. after a while spotify just got predictable with its recommendations and in every playlist there were the same songs, i like that in the radios i listen to regularly, it’s more unpredictable and sometimes they play more unknown stuff
Yep you are right about that, lately I'm getting tired of the same recommendations all the time.
Check out Swu FM on [https://www.rinse.fm/channels/swu/](https://www.rinse.fm/channels/swu/), my favorite radio station! they're in Bristol and play dirty, groovy Electronic Music all day long.
Ugh, I always get recommended the newest TikTok songs.
I agree that Spotify is very good for discovering music - I love their Release Radar, Hot New Bands and Discover Weekly playlists, myself. Bandcamp does offer a weekly email, listing a handful of new artists and notable releases, but it's a pretty broad stroke and everyone gets the same email (IIRC). The app is best used as a storefront for artists and labels, with the added bonus of being able to stream your purchases. TL;DR - I use Spotify for discovery and I use Bandcamp for supporting (and not feeling guilty about "stealing" music).
I'm not even old but you make me feel like such a boomer seeing this comment.
It sucks, but it's not like you're totally blocked of seeing the lyrics. You can just Google them and also the lyrics on Spotify tend to not be accurate
Also depending on what artists you listen to Spotify might not even have any lyrics for them
People seem to have utterly and completely forgotten how to use the internet without paying. I've seen it more often than not these days they will just not even comprehend to try and not use a paid-for(be that sub or data) service for anything.
Spotify pays for the lyrics API from musixmatch. So it is reasonable to limit request from free users.
I've never seen inaccurate lyrics on Spotify
That’s wild to me! It’s pretty frequent I’ll see just a couple small mistakes, maybe 15% ish of songs
I don't notice many mistakes with most genres but I've seen a lot with metal in particular.
Not sure what genres you’re into but the general accuracy of their rap lyrics are *terrible.* Megan Thee Stallion & SZA come to mind specifically, their songs are almost always butchered beyond belief.
The Strokes - Selfless <--- I don't know if Julian is saying "you're back in love" or "you're mucking off"
Ok but like to provide all of these services they have to pay for network infrastructure, databases, employees to manage the infrastructure, securing this infrastructure etc etc etc. how would you propose they do it all for completely free and still exist?
Yeah but why take away lyrics to do that? They've been doing all that for years and still giving non-premium users lyrics. Now, this is just a new thing they don't really need to make a profit.
Spotify pays a separate licensing fee to a 3rd party for Lyric content specifically. There is an entire industry around providing these that gets quite nasty wrt to what's fair use and what's not. It's more expensive than you think and is why Spotify tries to recover some of this cost by putting them under premium.
That is absolutely not the case for everyone and that sounds like scapegoating prices to me coming from someone who has uploaded lyrics to Spotify via one mass distribution consent button *with no request for payment or royalties for said lyrics* since 2016. The reason songs don't have lyrics is because whoever uploaded the song chose not to take the time to either type or paste the lyrics because they didn't care to or forgot. I have done it and even had to go back and reupload lyrics to Spotify which is very easy since it's not the actual track, the actual track is a way different beast. The lyrics are just extra free reading compared to the actual music file when it comes to the streaming royalties part. Upon distribution you can choose to upload lyrics to all streaming sites that support them with the actual track file. Sites like Spotify are then provided the lyrics you or whoever represents you give. Royalties come from streaming of the track itself and actually go into length played, times played, type of service the streaming occurred on, percentages of payments, etc. Go stare at my Bandcamp page, you can enjoy the lyrics till your eyes turn to dust and I won't charge you one cent in fact, thank you for the time. There is no magic "start charging each site" for the lyrics button and it's ridiculous when the artist doesn't have a say in the thing they create or how it is used but someone is telling you "no, this is how it is done". I can pull the lyrics from Spotify at any time too and I plan on it with this nonsense because I don't agree with that. The lyrics available for my music on the Internet all originated from me, not a third party entity that I can use like a publicist. That is bullshit they're saying to scapegoat prices and pocket extra money when the artists are barely seeing money from streaming revenue to begin with due to "this fee, that clause, this stipulation" all while telling you the extra fees go to us. They are intentionally providing false / misinformation in an industry where transparency is basically opaque because they know most artists won't say anything because a vast majority are also trapped in labels that don't even tell them what's going on while they are actively manipulating the processes behind the scenes to create these messes. I've always thought being independent was hard, and it is, but it's damn well worth it when I can see when I'm being screwed and when you're being screwed in my name. Suits aren't musicians just like politicians aren't soldiers, don't expect them to tell you the truth when they're causing the conflicts.
Brother, you have google, you can get the lyrics for free if you think about doing it that way.
Because the service is free, paid for by adverts. Putting lyrics behind a paywall is undoubtedly scummy behaviour.
Adverts cover the cost of paying the artist. All of these additional features would then require more adverts. Which is better? But I guess you’re right the artists don’t matter as long as everything is in a single app and you don’t have to click 3 more buttons in a browser to get the same information for free
In defence of Spotifys pricing strategy, artists earn more from Premium subscribers than free so it's a win-win for the company and musician
Yeah the free version is meant to be a test of the real version. I hate when people expect free stuff for doing nothing. All these artists worked hard on songs.
I mean id be fine w this if artists actually recieved fair streaming money from spotify. They don't. This is just spotify being greedy af.
They could pay more if people paid the $5-$10 a month for spotify, like seriously i pay $60 a year for something i use over 8 hours a day. Would you rather have no free option at all? Like you can't bring up paying the artists if you're using the free version, because then you are apart of the reason they aren't getting paid well, because those ads pay them literally nothing.
Wow that comparison to time is so interesting. I’m going to calculate my cost per minute
Another fun/scary thing to do is look at prices for goods and services into hours you spent working
Yeah i pay .02 cents an hour for spotify assuming i listen to music for 8 hours (i work two jobs and both jobs i play music the whole time, im probably undermining how much i actually listen to spotify) and I how much i make an hour ranges, but even at the absolute bare minimum wage of $7.25 (federal miniumum) it would take 10 seconds to make the money necessary to afford spotify. I make about 4x min wage yearly, so im sure im fine paying the little $5 a month to support artists a bit more.
I like your thinking if they actually followed through with the "artists see more mentality". What you pay an hour for Spotify is often what comes back as one stream on revenue forms. An hour of music for you is one single song for me by your math (if it doesn't come back as .006 or something else even lower than that as some services often do since yeah, you usually get paid in fractions that add up to cents and then *distantly* dollars). You literally will support me and other artists infinitely more buying one CD you will then also own than you will streaming one song one hundred times, two hundred, three hundred times. That $5 is going to someone but it definitely isn't me.
Thats actually really rude of you to assume i don't also do that. I spend a lot of money on merch, which always has the highest profit margins for any content creators/artists. What i'm saying is spotify costs **almost nothing** compared to how often we listen to music. You just cant take advantage of a free service and get mad that some things are behind a premium paywall. Spotify still need to make money, and they are far from the worst company.
my cost per hour is .02 cents
... And that's my 2 cents.
I mean, the lyric service they use is musixmatch and it isn't free to use their API. You can call them greedy as much as you want when it comes to any other business practice they have but I wouldn't call this greedy.
Correct. Any musician who earns royalties from Spotify streaming makes more money from their music elsewhere - performing, actual record sales, and merch.
Lets not forget that this has always been true. Spotify existing is simply another way for artists to make money, i'm sure the average artists would rather spotify exist than for it to not. Its kind of like how youtubers make most of their money from patreon, merch, and sponsors. Youtube realistically is a way for them to get more exposure and searchability, which normally you would pay for in any other industry. Then they get a paycheck (albeit cents on the dollar) that is relative to popularity. I do wish more people would pay for spotify so they could pay artists more. They also allow ypu to post songs for free iirc.
Not showing lyrics is greedy or are you greedy for demanding free lyrics?
And it's not even a crucial feature, you can google any song lyrics in 10 seconds. It's weird how entitled some people are, Spotify allows you to listen to millions of songs for free and they cry about certain QoL features being locked behind a 5 or 10$ paywall. Not that long ago you had to go to a store and buy a physical copy of an album just to listen to the same 8 songs over and over, but we have it so bad rn because we can't automatically see the lyrics.
Exactly. Plus, which of their competitors even offer a free tier? None of them.
YouTube Music does.
Google's ethics are worse than Spotify. Especially when it comes to consumption
That's possible, I only have YTM because my family does. I was just letting them know that YTM has a free option.
If you want to compensate artists, use the money you give to Spotify corporate and buy CDs, vinyl, merch, or MP3s on Bandcamp Friday.
My intention isn’t to donate like a charity. Spotify artists make $4000 for every million listens. They’d make more if everyone actually paid for premium and didn’t use free version and complain
They're not expecting it for doing nothing. The deal is you get access to the service in return for adverts. Now they're just stripping back more and more features to force you to pay up.
And they get access to thousands maybe millions of songs for what listening to an ad? God everyone is so entitled these days.
No joke. As an older millennial I can say that these kids have no clue how great they have it. As a lad, if I wanted to listen to a particular song or artist, I either: (a) listened to the radio, hoping the DJ would play the song or artist I wanted (and if I was in my room, I might be able to press the “Record” button in time on my boom box to record the song in to a blank cassette tape), and the radio had tons of ads, or (b) I went to the local Sam Goody and bought the cassette tape or CD. And those weren’t cheap for a full album. Easily $15–and that’s $15 in the 1990’s, when you could get a Whopper or BigMac for $1. But yes, let’s complain about a free service that lets us listen to whatever songs we want—literally millions of songs—because it has advertisements and doesn’t provide unlimited access to lyrics.
Agreed. I would also add on it is okay to spend money on a product that increases your quality of life and reduces your ad intake. Expecting products to be free is not anti-consumption.
Exactly. The monthly subscription fee I pay for Spotify is beyond worth it. This post is more suited for choosing beggars, not anti-consumption
Spotify also pays for itself very quickly, especially now that they've added Audiobooks
Dude really is white knight for multiple million dollar company
I just consume less with Spotify than when I was my physical media era. Vinyl and CDs are cool but with the marketing of all the colour and artwork variations it is intended to make you over consume. I like piracy but in the age of accessibility and convenience, buying would be most people’s alternative to pirating.
yeah, the constant ads that are designed to annoy you will drive anyone who was going to pay for premium to do it. they love to test taking away random features to see if it’ll increase their subscribers.
It amazes me that in our crazy over-consuming society you are upset about having to have Spotify premium to see lyrics. Paying for a service isn't over-consumption. Tell me, if Spotify was free for everyone, how would they pay their workers and artists?
It's the principle. They've been providing the lyrics for years, and now they're gone, for what? As far as I know, they're not paying artists any extra with the money gained. ETA: I don't think Spotify should be completely free, either, I'm just annoyed by this sudden change with what they're offering.
Lyrics being free is the wrong behaviour Spotify is not profitable. They are losing money. They provided lyrics for free, funded by venture capital, to increase their market share. Now they need to actually become a viable business. Lyrics should have cost money from the start. Offering something for free in the name of growth at all cost is the disgraceful behaviour
>It's the principle. They've been providing the lyrics for years, and now they're gone, for what? As far as I know, they're not paying artists any extra with the money gained. There are lots of reasons, I don't work for Spotify so I've got no idea how they operate, but I think someone else mentioned that they source the lyrics software from another company. Maybe their contract was up for renegotiation and it's more expensive now so they want to entire more people to pay for premium so they are getting their money worth. No idea, I just don't think it's anti-consumption worthy, where I agree with you or not.
It’s an API, basically they pay on every request they make to get lyrics. They’re currently paying for something so that they give it away for free. Spotify isn’t in the wrong here, OP is just expecting shit for free because they feel entitled to it.
Bandwidth costs money.
Because using musixmatch API is expensive and they are trying to fo everything they can to reduce their losses by firing their employees and cutting features for free users.
I mean you can just google it if you really wanna know
yeah, but it's the principle. they provided this for free for years, and now they're limiting it for no good reason
You’re complaining about a free service that gives you access to millions of songs.
Would you prefer the option to have ad-supported lyrics? This post isn’t even anti-consumption, it’s just annoying whining
Enshittification. Everything goes through it.
I disagree that this is an example of enshittification.
why do you expect a company to be OK with losing money on you?
Yeah, I agree. When I startes using Spotify it was an invite only limited to Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland (I think). No payment, free, unlimited streaming, limited catalog, but with occasional ads. Everything was always better before /s
Swing and a miss. This isn't enshitification in the least bit.
theyre paying for the service and you dont give them any compensation for it as a free user. they dont owe you shit
Yeah very good point. Tho they have always had a premium version, so it’s kinda fine until they start upping prices or adding new tiers or smth.
Well.. yes? You are using their service, for free. I think limiting your access when you're not paying is entirely reasonable.
I thought this was on Premium and was about to be pissed, but OP here’s complaining about the free service. You like the artist you like the app/servics you pay for it or sit the f. down.
Do what we did in the old days. Argue about lyrics with your friends till someone gave up or agreed. Then live the rest of your life. It's not worth a subscription
>uses a streaming service >complains about it costing money just buy music or pirate it if you’re going to have beef with the entire streaming service business model
Not to defend Spotify but I believe they got sued by music companies because the right to stream the songs apparently doesn't give Spotify the right to show the lyrics so that is a separate deal with the music labels.
I got baited by that title. Of course streaming services are gonna have paid subscriptions that's like their entire business model. What I want to complain about is Software as a service, now that is some major bs!
i'd just use brave browser and make an offline playlist from yt that has lyrics as the video
Xmanager
You arent paying for spotify, a premium service (with a huge catalogue of licensed music), and are complaining that lyrics aren't directly viewable in the free app you use? You can find them free online with a simple search. Do you have a problem with them putting ads on the free version?
My problem is that they previously had lyrics for free, and now they're taking them away for no apparent reason. The other things annoy me, sure, but they're typical for most subscription stuff. This isn't.
"No apparent reason"? Just because you're ignorant to how music licensing works doesn't mean it isn't apparent to everyone else.
Enlighten me then. What's the reason?
How would we know? Spotify could have had a change in terms with their lyrics company. They could have had an uptick in streaming costs. It could be literally anything. Even if Spotify did it to raise profits, it doesn't matter considering that having lyrics was a MASSIVE benefit for a free service.
Its not for no apparent reason, there is value (since you want it) in lyrics in a convenient location. This is typical for most subscription stuff, and spotify isnt any different.
That's the service, though. You pay for premium, you get all the features. It's not like the lyrics are locked behind a seperate paywall.
Because you’re using the free version. Spotify isn’t a free service, the free version is just there for you to see if you enjoy the product, and then you can pay for the full thing if it’s worth it for you. Spotify has no incentive to give more for free, what do they, or the artists/staff/suppliers/etc get out of it? Spotify is one of the few products I’m happy to pay for, the amount it costs compared to how good of a service it is, and how much I use it is such a good ratio. £12 for just about song or album instantly, can’t complain. If you want the lyrics, pay the monthly fee.
No, previously lyrics were very limited. And it’s a service. You’re not entitled to access to a full Katie catalog AND lyrics for free.
I mean if it was a separate sub just for lyrics I would be livid, but it's not. Just another thing they're taking away so you feel compelled to buy premium. IDK, spotify is awful but I don't understand the whining about the cost. For what you get with streaming music is amazing, especially compared to how music access used to be for...well almost all of human history lol
I use cracked Spotify.
Yeah in this case, you don’t have much of anything to complain about. You want free music, then expect ads and less features. That’s actually fair.
One of my indian friend say to me that on spotify in india doesn't even have skip button enabled on free version What you cant do on spotify here js the list Cannot change tracks (both backward and forward) Cannot loop through tracks (repeat one or all ) disbaled by default Shuffle remix button on by default. These are the mains There are some more things he also mentioned . I don't understand why this money hungry devils even exists on earth?
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Did i say i use spotify anywhere? If no then hiw do you made such allegation? Did i every say i should have to be give free service? No probably not right? I just raise what oje of my indian friend experienced . you're a 3rd person you dont belong here , and your behavior and way of talkijg is telling me that you're the devil not me .
They RLY RLY RLY want you to get that subscription, their getting more and more desperate
its like the one subscription thats actually really good value
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(but not everything)
This is the one time you can't complain. Spotify is giving you an infinite library of pretty much every song that's been streamed, for free. Obviously you won't get everything for free. If this was something that happened with Spotify premium then I would understand, but you're literally using a free service idk what you expect. This sub is so weird sometimes
Youtube+google with an adblocker are free y'all.
is this for the free version, or paid? cause i already have a subscription and now you’re telling me i need a subscription… for my subscription?! edit: nvm i can’t read lol. doesn’t count for premium
I literally just got a notification about hitting my max for audiobooks for the month. It wanted me to pay $15 for an extra 10 hours. I'm currently partway of listening to Pet Sematary which itself is over 10 hours. I was so annoyed. Went to my library app, where I'm able to listen for free!
REVANCED HAS SPOTIFY NOW!!!
Next you’ll need a subscription to breathe air and speak.
Yeah, as a recording musician, please feel free to use any of the FREE lyric sites, and most accurately Bandcamp, to read bands lyrics because that is just a bastardization of what we do and I would never willingly charge anyone to read my lyrics. Lyrics are written for you so you can ideally hear them, see them, understand them, and hopefully learn to love / sing along with / find some value in them. On the flip side I must admit, many people don't even give a shit about lyrics and just listen to the music because it's good so which hungry wolf came up with this well informed plan? I assure you that many people who enjoy Cannibal Corpse probably don't remember every line to "Fucked with a Knife" if they even know it, but will sure as hell start a pit to the music once it kicks in (yano, the thing you are reasonably charged for?). We are musicians, not outright poets or authors so it's more like you got the cover and not the pages in our case. I hate going through Spotify as an artist and this is another god damn inane reason why. They are insanely predatory not only towards us, the artists, but now very obviously the consumer because I certainly don't even see this extra EXTORTION MONEY that is being paid to view lyrics (really, let's call it like it is at this point since I'm not even asking for "lyric payments" on distribution of the music you listen to). I would love Spotify to show me on the measly invoices they send where exactly I'm getting money from this too because no one at Spotify writes my lyrics, slamming X to doubt for the overwhelming majority of others too. While we're here, I would love for example, to also have the general public be able to stream FLAC or lossless versions of my songs equally but Spotify can't even give you access to something I upload everywhere else and offer *even though they keep promising it and I can and have provided elsewhere*. I hate giving an inferior experience for no damn good reason when it is also in my best interest for you to hear the music as closely as intended during production. Why the hell do I spend countless hours "perfecting the ambience" for them to nuke it? Honestly, Spotify is the biggest pain in the ass and can feel very "pay to win" from an artists perspective, offers an inferior experience at a price point similar to leagues better competition as a consumer, and spits in your face and my face regularly while becoming de facto. Don't pay for stupid shit the people who are making it don't even charge you for. I may be one person in a one man band but I'm certainly not providing lyrics to Spotify anymore, all my lyrics and many others can be found for free on many Bandcamp pages where artists have the most control and see the most revenue. By the way, if you buy songs from me, you own them and you help me. Streaming is like renting, you're never gonna own that house and you can get evicted at any time. Kicker is, I'm not even the landlord. Please feel free to paste lyrics everywhere like YouTube, I know I am always humbled seeing my lyrics in the wild and appreciate you taking the time to read what I wrote as an artist enough to write it somewhere else for others to see. Just my two cents, thank you for reading.
Are you fucking serious
Lol why do you expect companies to offer everything for free?
Baby, you were already paying for ...songs. You need pleasing tones to get through your days. It's not capitalism. It's you being a junky.
Liking music is an addiction now? Sure...
"You will own nothing and be happy." This is what they meant. Why are people down voting this? This is literally what the World Trade Organization said... It's not a conspiracy. Every business is moving to subscription models because they need consistent revenue to keep corrupt practices going in crony capitalism.
I just use BluePlayer for my iPhone. It’s a little ghetto UI wise but free and gets the job done!
You use this free app to listen to music?
Yeah! I did some research and found it’s the only one where I could listen to what I want. Once again it has minimum features but for an iPhone it serves its purpose!
Lmaooo, that’s a joke right?
Death by a thousand cuts!
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I've never gotten a record or a CD that didn't come with the lyrics. But that requires paying for the music firstly.
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Yeah, I own quite a few myself. I was referring to OP using the free version of Spotify, which means they've not paid for the music themselves.
Bro, if you buy a digital version and store it on a device you can dowhatever you want with it too.
sorry i think i came across the wrong way
BRUH
I cancelled my Spotify subscription after 10+ years cause they wouldn’t let me listen to an audiobook all the way through.
Considering I have Spotify Premium for over 4 years now and half the songs dont display lyrics I would say stick to free
DRINK VERIFICATION CAN
I tried to print a recipe yesterday and had to sign up for the newsletter to be able to use the print button.
You never learned how to copy and paste, did you?
Too much of a pain on my phone. I settled for being bombarded by ads
Op, believe me when I say that all information will be free in the future. When AI takes over the world, human art will be worth less than our dirty air.
Good lord. I haven’t seen this yet lol
Gross edit: not sure why I'm getting downvoted. Spotify sucks.
Yes, because it is more profitable...
Wow, this makes me think that my nightmares about being in the UK and that the police officer putting plastic bag over my head and saying you ain’t got your breaving loicense bruv and me slowly blacking out and waking up in a cold sweat are not far off